The Lightning Dreamer Quotes

“I envy the trees that grow at crossroads. They are never forced to decide which way to go...”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“Some people are born with words flowing in their veins.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I am alone
and my heart
is my own.

Loneliness.
Solitude.
The first is a curse,
the second a blessing.
I would rather be a hermit
than live with a stranger
who would make me feel
even more lonely
than when I am
truly
alone.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“Marriage without love is just one more twisted form of slavery.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“People assume that men
make all the rules, but sometimes
mothers are the ones who command
girls to be quiet
while they arrange
for us to be sold
like oxen
or mules.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I think of my feather pen
as something magical
that still belongs
to a wing.

All I need
is paper, ink,
and the courage
to let wild words soar.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“But love
is a wildly
unpredictable
hurricane wind,
not a swirling
blue ocean
with peaceful
shores.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“Opinions. Ideas. Possibilities. So many! How can I choose? Between bursts of lightning-swift energy, I enjoy peaceful moments when the whole world seems to be a flowing river of verse and all I have to do is learn how to swim.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“What more do I need?
I don't know how my book
will end.

All I know is that love
is not the modern invention
of rebellious young girls.

Love is ancient.
A legend.
The truth.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I feel at home, choosing to live
inside my own imagination,
savage
and natural,
yet I also long to be honest
about my desire
to love
and be loved.

Am I an unearthly creature,
part vampire, part werewolf?

Or perhaps...
poetry is my beastly mind's
only curse.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I feel certain that words
can be as human
as people,
alive
with the breath
of compassion.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I sing without knowing what my song means, and whether the listening world is amazed or wounded.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“Monster!
Bookworm!
Unnatural!
Professor!
Genius!
Atheist!

The insults my mother screeches
have no limit.

Atheist? No. Love is God's
boldest creation.

Surely, angels on clouds
must gaze down and smile
each time a girl on earth
refuses a marriage
based on love's
absence.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“I enjoy peaceful moments when the whole world seems to be flowing river of verse and all I have to do is learn how to swim.”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist

“Why can't she see that no two people
are exactly alike? Our hearts and minds
are all different.
Only our dreams share
this same desperate need
to rise
and soar...”
― Margarita Engle, The Lightning Dreamer: Cuba's Greatest Abolitionist