Juan Felipe Herrera Quotes

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Juan Felipe Herrera

Profession : Poet

Birth : December 27, 1948

The more we engage in society, the more firsts we have, then there will be a moment when we have no more firsts. Or maybe there will always be new firsts.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I like marketplaces. I like train stations; I like being in trains. I like airports. I like walking down the street with a pen in my hand, writing, writing, writing.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I gave my voice to poetry.

Juan Felipe Herrera

Poetry, as odd as it is, and as hard to figure out as it is, many times, it's almost something that we're used to. It's kind of like a dream language that we had centuries ago, so that when we speak poetically or write a poem about what's going on, a real difficult issue that's facing our communities, people listen.

Juan Felipe Herrera

We went from crop to crop, field to field. And my father had that army truck, a 1940s army truck from Fort Bliss, El Paso.

Juan Felipe Herrera

Perhaps, like the way these leaves spread out and the way they curl in many directions and how they have many features, I think that's how my road has been.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I know I'm representing the Library of Congress, all the people of the United States and, of course, the Latinos and Latinas as well.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I want our young Latinos and Latinas to write their hearts out and express their hearts out and let us all listen to each other.

Juan Felipe Herrera

By middle school, I said to myself that it's time I begin to speak. I joined the choir, not because I wanted to. I forced myself.

Juan Felipe Herrera

First grade was - I spoke only Spanish, and second grade - probably a bit more English. And by the time I hit third grade, I was learning, of course, much, much more English.

Juan Felipe Herrera

The goal for me is to be as expansive as possible, and the Library of Congress offers so many resources.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I'm usually writing in English, and then I'll get the hankering to change channels. And usually I'll do that when I want to try a whole new set of keys, like musical keys.

Juan Felipe Herrera

We speak about understanding each other, having those conversations nationwide - culturally, historically - and yet there's a lot of gaps. So I want to assist with closing the gap of knowing about and hearing about our Latino communities in terms of literature, in terms of writing.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I want to take everything I have in me, weave it, merge it with the beauty that is in the Library of Congress, all the resources, the guidance of the staff and departments, and launch it with the heart-shaped dreams of the people.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I write while I'm walking, on little scraps of paper. If I have a melody going, I can feel it for days.

Juan Felipe Herrera

Just like my parents immigrated from ranch to ranch picking crops, I have migrated from city to city.

Juan Felipe Herrera

If I can only be known as one thing, then, well, I guess it would be poet and performer and teacher.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I'm very grateful to all the people of Fresno, to Philip Levine and all the poets before me, and all the farmworkers. I didn't get here by myself.

Juan Felipe Herrera

What I really had was stories, the oral traditions of my parents. We moved so much that that was really our encyclopedia. A dream world told to me from my parents in the living room.

Juan Felipe Herrera

I am representing California, and all of California, definitely as a Mexicano, a Chicano, a Latino.

Juan Felipe Herrera