“—Mamá... —murmuró Esteban y la voz se le quebró en el pecho en un llanto contenido, borrando de una plumada los recuerdos tristes, la infancia pobre, los olores rancios, las mañanas heladas y la sopa grasienta de su niñez, la madre enferma, el padre ausente y esa rabia comiéndole las entrañas desde el día en que tuvo uso de razón, olvidando todo menos los únicos momentos luminosos en que esa mujer desconocida que yacía en la cama, lo había acunado en sus brazos, había tomado su frente buscando la fiebre, le había cantado una canción de cuna, se había inclinado con él sobre las páginas de un libro, había sollozado de pena al verlo levantarse al alba para ir a trabajar cuando aún era un niño, había sollozado de alegría al verlo regresar en la noche, había sollozado, madre, por mí.” MotherMother S LoveMadreMamáMadre E HijoAmor De MadreAmor De Hijos Book:The House of the Spirits Source: The House of the Spirits
“In my private circle I am a mother, grandmother, wife, friend, daughter... the success means nothing to my small tribe.” MeanMotherWifeDaughterCirclesGrandmotherTribesMother Grandmother Author:Isabel Allende
“Young women don't want to be called feminists because it's not sexy and ah they think that their mothers and grandmothers have achieved everything they want. They don't know how poor women live, how women in rural places live, how 80 percent of women in the world are the poorest of the poor, how still there are 27 million slaves, and most of them women and girls.” ThinkingKnowsWorldWantStillsYoungMotherGirlPoorMillionsKnow HowPercentSlaveFeministSexyGrandmotherYoung WomenPoorestMother And Grandmother Author:Isabel Allende
“When my daughter Paula died, I was in the deepest pain, and my mother said, "This kind of sorrow is like a long, narrow, dark channel. You have to walk this channel alone and be sure that there is light at the other ending. Just keep walking."” KindLongSaidLightPainMotherDarkWalksWalkingSorrowDaughterDiedMy Daughter Author:Isabel Allende
“It's such an intimate and profound relationship that it cannot be unconditional. I can only compare the intimacy of sex with the intimacy of the mother with a newborn baby. But with a newborn baby, it is unconditional.” I CanMotherSexBabyProfoundIntimacyCompareIntimateUnconditionalNewbornNewborn Baby Author:Isabel Allende
“The idea of the book ["The Japanese Lover"] came in a conversation that I had with a friend walking in the streets of New York. We were talking about our mothers, and I was telling her how old my mother was, and she was telling me about her mother. Her mother was Jewish, and she said that she was in a retirement home and that she had had a friend for 40 years that was a Japanese gardener. This person had been very important in my friend's upbringing.” YearsPersonsSaidImportantBookIdeasHomeMotherTalkingStreetsNew YorkLoversWalkingConversationMy FriendsRetirementGardenerUpbringingRetirement Homes Author:Isabel Allende
“There is no death, daughter. People die only when we forget them,' my mother explained shortly before she left me. 'If you can remember me, I will be with you always.” PeopleIfsRememberMotherDiesLeftLossForgetDaughterRemembranceRemember MeLoss Of A ParentShe Left Me Book:Eva Luna: A Novel Source: Eva Luna: A Novel
“The last time I was in Chile, I was hypnotized by a friend who is studying to be a curandero, a healer, who led me back through several incarnations. It wasn't easy to return to the present, however, since my friend hadn't reached that part of the course, but the experiment was well worth the effort because I discovered that in former lives I was not Genghis Khan, as my mother believes.” BelieveWellsLastsMotherCoursesEasyEffortStudyReturnMy FriendsExperimentsFormerLast TimeIncarnationHealerChileFormer Life Book:My invented country: a memoir Source: My invented country: a memoir
“She was one of those people who was born for the greatness of a single love, for exaggerated hatred, for apocalyptic vengance, and for the most sublime forms of heroism but she was unable to shape her fate to the dimensions of her amorous vocation, so it was lived out as something flat and gray trapped between her mother's sickroom walls, wretched tenements, and the tortured confessions with which this large, opulent, hot-blooded woman made for maternity, abundance, action, and ardor- was consuming herself.” PeopleMadeActionFormMotherBornFateGreatnessWallShapesHatredHotAbundanceDimensionsFlatsGrayConfessionHeroismTrappedSublimeVocationWretchedConsumingExaggeratedApocalypticArdorMaternityAmorousTenements Author:Isabel Allende
“My name is Eva, which means 'life,' according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.” WorldHumansMeanMadeBookMotherHouseNamesBornMemoriesRoomsGrewGrew UpBreathsAncientMelancholyLatinFurnitureJungleMeaning LifeMummy Book:Eva Luna Source: Eva Luna
“She was considered timid and morose. Only in the country, her skin tanned by the sun and her belly full of ripe fruit, running through the fields with Pedro Tercero, was she smiling and happy. Her mother said that that was the real Blanca, and that the other one, the one back in the city, was a Blanca in hibernation.” SaidRealCountryRunningMotherCitiesSunFieldsSkinsFruitBellyRipeMoroseRipe FruitHibernation Book:The House of the Spirits: A Novel Source: The House of the Spirits: A Novel
“The most savory grape, the one that produces the wines with best texture and aroma, the sweetest and most generous, doesn't grow in rich soil but in stony land; the plant, with a mother's obstinacy, overcomes obstacles to thrust its roots deep into the ground and take advantage of every drop of water. That, my grandmother explained to me, is how flavors are concentrated in the grape.” MotherGrowsWaterRichLandProduceAdvantageRootsOvercomingWinePlantObstaclesGenerousSoilGrandmotherMy GrandmotherFlavorSweetestTextureThrustGrapesDrop Of WaterObstinacyAromaSavory Author:Isabel Allende
“Feminism is dated? Yes, for privileged women like my daughter and all of us here today, but not for most of our sisters in the rest of the world who are still forced into premature marriage, prostitution, forced labor - they have children that they don't want or they cannot feed.” WorldWantChildrenStillsTodayMotherFeminismDaughterLaborMy DaughterPrivilegedGeekProstitutionPremature Author:Isabel Allende
“I am happier when I love than when I am loved. I adore my husband, my son, my grandchildren, my mother, my dog, and frankly, I don't know if they even like me. But who cares? Loving them is my joy.” IfsKnowsLoveCareJoyMotherDogSonHusbandLike MeMy HusbandMy SonAdoreGrandchildrenWho CaresMy DogMy Grandchildren Author:Isabel Allende
