Pam Muñoz Ryan > Quotes

“We are like the phoenix," said Abuelita. "Rising again, with a new life ahead of us.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“The needle rocked awkwardly and at the end of her beginning rows, Isabel held up her work to show Esperanza. "Mine is all crooked!"

Esperanza smiled and reached over and gently pulled the yarn, unraveling the uneven stitches. Then she looked into Isabel's trusting eyes and said, "Do not ever be afraid to start over.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“There is no rose without thorns.”
― Pam Munoz Ryan

“Music does not have a race or a disposition! Every instrument has a voice that contributes. Music is a universal language. A universal religion of sorts. Certainly it's my religion. Music surpasses all distinctions between people" -Father”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“You never have to get over it you just have to get on with it.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Paint the Wind

“Our Land is alive, Esperanza...This whole valley breathes and lives...He picked up a handful of earth and studied it. Did you know that when you lie down on the land, you can feel it breathe? That you can feel its heart beating.”
― Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“Wait for the fruit to fall into your hand.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“I am poor, but I am rich. I have my children, I have a garden with roses, and I have my faith and the memories of those who have gone before me. What more is there?”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“YOUR FATE IS NOT YET SEALED.
EVEN IN THE DARKEST NIGHT, A STAR WILL SHINE,
A BELL WILL CHIME, A PATH WILL BE REVEALED.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“Everybody has a heart. Sometimes you gotta work hard to find it" -Mouse”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“She said people on hard times deserved to have beauty in their lives as much as anyone else, whether or not they could pay their rent or were walking to a breadline. Granny said that just because someone was poor didn't mean they were poor of heart.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“no matter how much sadness there is in life, there are equal amounts of maybe-things’ll-get-better-someday-soon.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“How many others were walking around and not even knowing that someone far away cared for them? Imagine all that love floating in the air, waiting to land on someone's life!”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Becoming Naomi León

“Oh Esperanza!' said Isabel, jumping up and down and clapping.'I think my heart is dancing.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“A weight pressed on his heart. How could he want something and fear it so much at the same time?”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“Which is sharper? The hatchet that cuts down dreams? Or the scythe that clears a path for another?”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer

“Mrs. Potter said you were a kind and loving soul, underneath all the rest. I guess that means your heart's so sad that it's hard to get out from under the weight. When I was sad about my mother dying, Granny used to say grief is the heaviest thing to carry alone. So I know all about that" -Mike”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“Es más rico el rico cuando empobrece que el pobre cuando enriquece. The rich person is richer when he becomes poor, than the poor person when he becomes rich.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“... and her name was Freedom.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Riding Freedom

“Esperanza leaned around the side of the truck. As they rounded a curve, it appeared as if the mountains pulled away from each other, like a curtain opening on stage, revealing the San Joaquin Valley beyond. Flat and spacious, it spread out like a blanket of patchwork fields. Esperanza could see no end to the plots of yellow, brown, and shades of green. The road finally leveled out on the valley floor, and she gazed back at the mountains from where they'd come. They looked like monstrous lions' paws resting at the edge of ridge. ”
― Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“This is what you learned in college," the narrator tells you early on. "A man desires the satisfaction of his desire; a woman desires the condition of desiring.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan

“There it was again, the good and bad all rolled into a meatball.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Becoming Naomi León

“Pablo Neruda's poems tramped through the mud [with the fieldworker]...knocked at the doors of mansions...sat at the table of the baker...The shopkeeper leaned over his counter and read them to his customers and said "Do you know him? He is my brother."

The poems became books that people passed from hand to hand. The books traveled over fences... and bridges... and across borders... soaring from continent to continent... until he had passed thousands of gifts through a hole in the fence to a multitude of people in every corner of the world.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer

“Your fate is not yet sealed. Even in the darkest night, a star will shine, a bell will chime, a path will be revealed.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan

“The sound of music is like water finding a path.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Echo

“Those with Spanish blood, who have the fairest complexions in the land, are the wealthiest.” Esperanza”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“The words he had written wiggled off the page and escaped from the drawer. The letters stacked themselves, one on top of the other. Their towers reached higher and higher until they stood majestic and tall, surrounding Neftali in a city of promise. HUMANITY. SOLIDARITY. GENEROSITY. PEACE. JUSTICE. LOVE. Then a tiny, conceited word came along. Like a hungry termite, it began to gnaw on the tall words, chewing at their foundation, gulping their pulp until they swayed, toppled, and collapsed. All that remained was one fat, satisfied syllable. FEAR.”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer

“Does a metamorphosis begin from the outside in? Or from the inside out?”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, The Dreamer

“Mama marry Tío Luis? Marry a goat?”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising

“Our Land is alive, Esperanza," -Esperanza Rising”
― Pam Muñoz Ryan