26 Juan Felipe Herrera Quotes for You to Enjoy

Juan Felipe Herrera

American Poet

Born: Dec 27, 1948

Me People Poet Sometimes Writing You

Related authors: Edgar Allan Poe Emily Dickinson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman

Diversity really means becoming complete as human beings - all of us. We learn from each other. If you're missing on that stage, we learn less. We all need to be on that stage. Juan Felipe Herrera

You Diversity Stage Other Complete Missing Learn Becoming Human Human Beings Us Really Means Less Beings Each Need

A pen is different from the pad, the key, moving your fingers across a screen. I like both. I like to work on sketchbooks, big old white sketch paper. I like how that feels, and I like to put different media on it. Then there's the phone, smartphone, iPad: It's the new page, and it's not the same page anymore. Juan Felipe Herrera

Work Key Phone Old Big White Paper Pen Fingers Both Put Feels New Like How iPad Same Same Page Screen Different Anymore Moving Sketch Pad Then Across Page Your Media

I tell my workshop students, 'I want you to think of yourselves as artists. Then, when you're writing, you're painting, you're crafting, you're making a design, you're sculpting, you're creating choreography, sound, a sound script.' Juan Felipe Herrera

You Writing Painting Design Think Tell Students Making Sound Crafting Artists Want Script Then Creating Sculpting Workshop Choreography

I remember looking at James Joyce's journals. It was just amazing - it looked like ants had written on the page. So much writing on one page, every corner of the page was filled. Some of the lines were underlined in yellow or blue or red. A lot of color, intense writing. Juan Felipe Herrera

Writing Remember Amazing Looking Every Corner Some Color Had Written Red Journals Like Joyce Looked Were Lines Lot Yellow Ants Intense Blue Just James Much Page Filled

Marvin Bell always looked very closely at how lines could break, how you could put over one line into the second line. How you could stop the line two or three times within the line: You could make it stop. 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

Paper Melody Write Feel Days Walking Going Scraps While Little

All voices are important, and yet it seems that people of color have a lot to say, particularly if you look through the poetry of young people - a lot of questions and a lot of concerns about immigration and security issues, you name it - big questions. Juan Felipe Herrera

You People Immigration Important Big Young Say Security About Seems Poetry Color Voices Through Name Look Particularly Concerns Issues Lot Questions Big Questions Young People

Sometimes I have a very fleeting emotional dance with a fleeting phrase, like 'half-Mexican.' Juan Felipe Herrera

Sometimes Dance Phrase Emotional Like Very Fleeting

Poetry is a call to action, and it also is action. Juan Felipe Herrera

Action Poetry Also Call

Sometimes you can do things with Spanish - like verbs and genders - easier than you can in English. Juan Felipe Herrera

You Sometimes Easier Like Verbs Than Spanish English Things

I used to stand on the corner in San Diego with poems sticking out of my hip pocket, asking people if there was a place where I could read poems. The audience is half of the poem. 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

Army Father Field Crop Had Truck Bliss El Paso Fort

Sometimes it's like that. I go, 'You know what? I'm going to just change scales. I'm going to even change instruments. And I'm going to go into the chromatics of the Spanish language,' and I do. You know, the poem is totally different. It's like a lunar voice versus a day voice, a solar voice. Juan Felipe Herrera

Yes, I am the first Latino poet laureate in the United States. But I'm also here for everyone and from everyone. My voice is made by everyone's voices. Juan Felipe Herrera

Made Poet First Everyone States Latino Laureate Poet Laureate Voice Voices Also Am Yes United United States Here

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

Myself Me Grateful People Before Philip Poets Very Get Here

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

Me World Parents Living Our Dream Dream World Had Traditions Encyclopedia Oral Moved Stories Room Much Really Living Room

San Diego shaped me a lot. The visual landscapes, the emotional panoramas, the teachers and mentors I had from the third grade through San Diego High - it's all a big part of the poetry fountain that I continue to drink from. Juan Felipe Herrera

Me Big High Visual Drink Poetry Mentors Through Emotional Shaped Had Part Continue Lot Big Part Grade Diego San San Diego Landscapes Teachers Fountain Third

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

Latino Definitely California Am Representing

My mother was a washerwoman - or a woman that cleaned houses in Texas... in Plano, Texas - who always loved poetry and always loved stories. Juan Felipe Herrera

Woman Mother Poetry Cleaned Houses Always Texas Stories Loved Who

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