Home / Quotes / Quote by Richard Blanco

Quote by Richard Blanco

“As an immigrant, there's a little part of you that always says, "Well, I'm not a hundred percent American." America is some other little boy or some other place I haven't been to yet.”

Quote by Richard Blanco

Author

Richard Blanco is a renowned American poet born on February 15, 1968, in Puerto Rico. His poetry blends personal experience, cultural identity, and public issues, enjoying great popularity among readers. more

You May Also Like

“What was transformative was being at the inauguration, reading my poem, and realizing that the quest for home and identity had always been part of my work, but that I'd been home all along.”

Home Reading Realizing Identity Inauguration

Author:Richard Blanco

“I like the labels because I think they tell my story in a very concise way: gay, Latino. I think the responsibility that comes with accepting labels is that now I get a chance to break stereotypes. It gives me the opportunity to tell the unique stories of what those labels mean.”

Thinking Giving Mean Opportunity Chance Responsibility Accepting Break Gay Unique Stereotype Latino

Author:Richard Blanco

“Everything is symbolic. If they'd picked some middle-aged white guy, well, that would have been a symbol, but it wouldn't have been shocking because that's the expected norm, right? I felt I was a good match: here's an accomplished poet, and he's also gay and Latino.”

Guy Poet Gay Accomplished Norm Latino

Author:Richard Blanco

“I had been thinking about the question, "What do I love about America?" I kept coming back to this idea of community and home, which already obsessed me in my work. But I couldn't quite figure out how to lead beyond my immediate experience. Then I was just standing at the kitchen sink, and I watched the sun rise, and I thought, "How many hundreds of thousands of people are watching the same sun rise right now?" I just knew the poem would go from that line.”

People Thinking Home Community Obsessed Kitchen Sun Rise

Author:Richard Blanco

“When I made my student film, a feature, nobody wanted to talk to me and I was, like, in the desert for 12 years.”

Film Students Talk To Me

Author:Derek Cianfrance

“Sidney Lumet is one of my favorite filmmakers. I feel like his approach to filmmaking was always so human. He was always making movies about the people. He wasn't about the tricks, you know what I mean? From 12 Angry Men on. Another film of his which I really, really love is Prince of the City, with Treat Williams, which is kind of a lost classic. Lumet is one of those film heroes that changed movies for everyone.”

People Men Kind Mean Film Love Is Changed Hero My Favorite Classic Filmmaker Filmmaking

Author:Derek Cianfrance

“I love crosscut parallel storytelling, like we did in Blue Valentine. I love how Alejandro González Iñárritu has done it, and Quentin Tarantino, and Francis Ford Coppola, and all the way back to D.W. Griffith - this parallel editing is an effective way to tell stories. It's like juggling, like keeping a lot of balls in the air and seeing how they come down.”

Done Storytelling Valentine Juggling Quentin Tarantino

Author:Derek Cianfrance

“I'm so sick of seeing guns in movies, and all this violence; and if there was going to be violence in Pines, I wanted it to actually be narrative violence. I wasn't interested in fetishizing violence in any way of making it feel cool or slow-motion violence. I wanted it to be just violence that affected the story.”

Violence Gun Sick So Sick

Author:Derek Cianfrance

“I always say writing is like dreaming, shooting is like living, and editing is like murder, because you take all these gifts that actors give you, and you cut them.”

Giving Writing Dream Cutting Murder

Author:Derek Cianfrance

“I've had to cut my mom out of a movie before - it's ruthless, editing. But it's also so necessary; because once you start taking away, it's like sculpture, you can really start feeling the shape of the whole.”

Feelings Cutting Mom My Mom

Author:Derek Cianfrance