Yolanda Quotes

When a man finds the woman he really loves, the one he respects and wants to call wife, there is nothing on earth he won't do for her. No mountain he won't hike. No river he won't wade. No door he won't open. She is Eve and there's not a snake crawling that can keep them apart.

Vanilla people are very quick to judge what they don’t understand.

Yolanda, nicknamed Yo in Spanish, misunderstood Joe in English, doubled and pronounced like the toy, Yoyo - or when forced to select from a rack of personalized keychains, Joey.

Zelda is black and fat. Yolanda is Mexican and homely. Antonio is a cross-eyed Dominican. Duane is of mixed race and has no teeth. Lucille is albino. Elisa is mute. To Fleming, they are all the same: unfit for other work and therefore easy to trust.

It was the way he looked at me when he climbed on top of me that excited me the most. The look of pure dominance that told me that this was going to go his way and not mine made me so eager for it that I pulled him down gruffly toward me and kissed him deeply.

Ghosts are not what I remember of my childhood; but somehow they infuse memories of myself as a child, the little girl in a storybook, with ghosts hovering around her.

You’re still several calamities short of a country song, Jordan. If your truck breaks down or your dog dies, I’ll put in a call to Nashville for you. In the meantime, suck it up.

We're none of us, are we, just one thing? I am a policeman, but also a father, a husband for the time being, a nursemaid to a sister who I pray will survive her illness. You are a journalist, a writer, and I don't know what else besides. To look at a person from a single angle is to deform them. Even if Yolanda is guilty...she is also afraid of the dark. And I cannot forget that I put her there.

I kept seeing Yolanda on the parquet, two men pinning her to the ground, her eyes loaded with hatred and madness combing her hair. I was stormed by her image and my heart could not bear it. We know so little about people. But about the people we love, we know even less.

Haven’t you guessed by now? I’m a monster. I don’t hide under your bed or in your closet. I don’t lurk in dark corners or only come out at night.

His accent was absolutely delicious and I didn’t mind talking to him for a little while.

For now, I want you to just sit there. I’ll let you know when you have permission to touch me, permission to touch yourself, and when the time comes, permission to come,

Did Yolanda dump you a second time?” she continued. “Or were you unable to score at the bar? What’s the motherfucking stupid reason why you’re here at this hour?

Yolanda stood with her head cocked and her dark eyes gleaming, like a crow at the fence line.

Addict logic,” Yolanda said, not missing a beat. “Life viewed through resentment.

It had chilled Yolanda to realize that her instincts were so blunted, that she’d been so susceptible to that charm.

I deserved to be with a man that truly loved me, no matter how different I was. I deserved to be with a man who saw past all of my faults, no matter how many I had. But most of all, I deserved to be with a man that would submerge himself as far into my darkness as I would into his.

That was a year and a half ago. And ‘seeing’ is a big word. If you go out with someone twice you are not seeing them,” she said calmly. “Anyway, we’re talking about you and Yolanda, not me.

I always wondered what he looked like; if the devil was the beautiful fallen angel that bible camp led me to believe as a child or if he was as ugly as the intentions that swelled deep inside of him.

It’s seven AM and they are announcing it’s breakfast time. Yolanda is excited for her free meal, however there is no way in hell that I’m leaving this cell room to eat and then get shanked. I have watched, ‘Orange is the New Black’ on cable TV and quite frankly I would rather go hungry than face a mob like those seasoned jail women. Besides, I have had to pee and poop for a few hours and now I will have the opportunity to do it in some semblance of privacy. I am doing a happy, (or have to pee) dance as my new friend exits for breakfast and I pray for her safe return. She is way braver than I.

Then she spoke with Yolanda, her eldest child, with whom she'd been shopping all afternoon for an Easter dress. "Mommy, I'm not going to cry," Yoki said resolutely. "I'll see him again in heaven." But something was bothering her, something clearly nagged at her young conscience. "Should I hate the man who killed my father?" she asked. Coretta shook her head. "No, darling, your daddy wouldn't want you to do that.

Yolanda Gampel utilizes an expanded concept of the "uncanny" to outline the results of violence: Those who experience such traumas are faced with an unbelievable and unreal reality that is incompatible with anything they knew previously. As a result, they can no longer fully believe what they see with their own eyes; they have difficulty distinguishing between the unreal reality they have survived and the fears that spring from their own imagination.

Every kid had heard of Fun Town, been there or envied someone who had. In the third cut on side A, Dr. King spoke of how his daughter longed to visit the amusement park on Stewart Avenue in Atlanta. Yolanda begged her parents whenever

Yolanda grew weary of the responsibility. Anthony wasn’t her flesh, yet he demanded the same constant supervision that even her children had begun to grow out of. He was like a child, but without the sweetness and vulnerability that enchanted her in Valerie and Amadeo.

I look up and pause as I lay eyes on the most enticingly beautiful woman I have ever seen. I swear it’s like God himself designed her. It’s like a pull of current is between us. She’s so captivating that I feel myself walk forward without realizing it, my feet moving on their own accord.

Tristán felt everything was a bit too raw to think about having sex so soon after their breakup, and he suspected Yolanda might want to get back together with him, because that had happened once before. That would be unfair to her since he was as lukewarm about their relationship as he had been

Dr. King spoke of how his daughter longed to visit the amusement park on Stewart Avenue in Atlanta. Yolanda begged her parents whenever she spotted the big sign from the expressway or the commercials came on TV. Dr. King had to tell her in his low, sad rumble about the segregation system that kept colored boys and girls on the other side of the fence. Explain the misguided thinking of some whites—not all whites, but enough whites—that gave it force and meaning. He counseled his daughter to resist the lure of hatred and bitterness and assured her that “Even though you can’t go to Fun Town, I want you to know that you are as good as anybody who goes into Fun Town.

I think this is where it started, the day I fell in love with her. The start of a series of events that would change my life forever.

He’s fucking nuts. I’m stuck in a house with a psychotic person and I can’t get out.

How can someone with the face of an angel hide the intentions of the devil so well?

I want you to use me as you see fit,

What do you ask a sexual predator that likes to kidnap women and break them down until he’s tired of them?

Whenever he was around, I always forgot to breathe-Diamond Anderson, One Man's Trash

Solo sufre quien no está dispuesto a reconocer la necesidad de las derrotas

Le gustaba la maravillosa sensación que produce abrir un libro, como si se abriera una puerta ante un mundo nuevo.

Si vos te pensás que la literatura no tiene nada que ver con la vida, pobre la literatura. Está en muy malas manos.

Amor. Sin duda alguna. Esa magia que fluía por sus venas sólo podía ser amor.

everyone’s born naked and the rest was drag.

This mess, it’s on me. I’m the victim and the perpetrator of this story. I wish this wasn’t the case. This mess is forcing me to deal with parts of myself I didn’t even know existed.

Dicen que alguna vez pasé hambre Y hay noches en que conmemoro a Afrodita a las mujeres de Nanjing, a las zulus, las tutsis las masacradas en Ponce, en Auschtwiz, en las ablaciones de a diario

David Hudson was rising in the political field. As a senator from New York, he had it all – good looks, a well-known family name and the finances to go with it, but for David, it was never enough. He graduated from an Ivy League school at the top of his class, and his parents were political royalty in America so he grew up in the spotlight with all of the luxuries one could imagine.

Still, Yolanda appreciated the fact that her meds allowed her to go among other people, who would treat her, when she was medicated, much like they would treat any other big-boned, over-weight girl with straight, mouse-brown hair, who lumbered across floors so heavily that objects rattled and the surfaces of liquid in glasses boiled. It was a relief not to be viewed as someone with special problems.

I had awoken back to Hell on Earth with the prince of darkness himself holding me so tightly against him. Almost as if he wanted to make sure that I would never go back to that dark place where he couldn’t follow.

Sometimes you realize how strong of a person you are when you can make necessary changes in your life. And have no regrets because at that moment you realize if changes need to be made it wasn't good for you in the first place.

Sometimes I think my thoughts are a waste of time. Like this one that I’m having right now. Why am I even having it? Other times I think I just let thoughts run through my head to hear myself think. Wait. I’m confusing myself. Never mind.

I want you to take your clothes off. I want you to come upstairs with me. I want to fuck you, Ms. Riley. I desperately want to feel you from the inside. I want to revel in you tightening around me,” he whispered, pressing himself against me.

I know. What we went through just now was only a taste of what’s coming, especially on the ninth floor. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. We’re going to lose more friends. We’re going to have to do some pretty horrible things just to survive. So I need you to keep that mask on. But one day... One day you’ll find yourself someplace safe and without worries and without everyone watching, and it’ll just fall right off. And it will hurt. You will cry for Firas and Gwen and Yolanda and Brandon and everybody else we’ve lost along the way, and you’ll be glad you had it on the whole time.

I shared my love of books with Benny, but Aunt Yolanda opened my eyes to the world of food as art, cooking without cans. She introduced me to the magic of spices, the exotic perfume of fresh herbs crushed between fingers. Younger than my mother, she was rounded in just the right spots, from her love of good food, and when we talked she looked right at me and listened, nodding and laughing loudly when I'd tell jokes, holding my hand when we'd walk, as if we were best friends or sisters. She liked Anne and Christine, too, but I could tell I was her favorite. She took me with her on shopping trips, to the fish market near the waterfront and the farm stands out west. Sometimes she'd journey to the Asian grocers in Northeast Portland or the hippie vegetarian markets on Hawthorne to find something special. We'd come home laden with ingredients that I knew my mother had never heard of, and the resulting feasts would fill me with a yearning to go to different places, to try new things.

La luz de la esperanza comienza hoy, cuando La Elegida ha nacido a la luz del sol. Es linda, es hermosa, como una flor, pero su belleza se entorpece, al pasar por mucho dolor. Su vida crece, su vida madura, pero no sabe que es el empiece, de su gran aventura. Alta es la traición que se comete, pues la nobleza se entromete, en la que un brujo ablandará, el corazón que ella le brindará. Pero la felicidad no perdura siempre, pues otro miedo pasa por su mente, y no sólo eso, también terribles recuerdos llegan, cuando delante de ella pasa La Muerte. Un obstáculo más, un obstáculo menos, ¿qué mas da, si es la más fuerte? Pero, ¿de dónde viene la fuerza, sino de su rival? Su propia sangre la traicionará, una vez, tal vez dos, pero luego decubrirá su mortal error, pagando así su equivocación. Fuerzas más ya no le quedan, cuando descubre la triste realidad: las personas que llenaban su corazón, una vez que se van, ya no han de regresar. Y eso se lo demuestran una vez más, cuando su verdadero amor le ha de abandonar, por el hecho de que su misma sangre lo destruirá. La Elegida sufrirá mucho más que cualquier ser, pues la tristeza y el abandono la han de poseer. En tres años, ni uno más, será cuando su amante se le dará una segunda oportunidad, la que por fin terminará, la misión que en un principio se le encomendó. Pero un problema se presentará, pues su corazón no la reconocerá, así que su sangre la ayudará, a terminar lo que empezó, a seguirel camino del que una vez se fió, y a tener dos almas más en su vida ermitaña de las cuales se percató. El bien y el mal, pelean una vez más, entre la luz y la oscuridad. Pero, que quede claro, sólo alguien puede terminar la pelea encarnizada para que todo llegue a su fin. A quien la Elegida entregó su alma, será el único que destruirá al demonio que se encuentra dentro de cada pecado, de cada mal. Y una vez más trinfará, el bien sobre el mal. La Elegida reinará, como noble, con bondad, como ella es en realidad.

La lectura no es simplemente una habilidad mecánica. Leer bien es razonar bien y ejercitar uno de los más elevados procesos mentales, que incluye diferentes formas del pensamiento: la evaluación crítica, la formulación de juicios, la imaginación y resolución de problemas.

Entre tantos libretos, me daba cuenta ahora de que me faltaba el mío.

El problema era haber estado buscándome tanto tiempo fuera de mi misma, y echándole la culpa a los demás de lo que me pasaba.

Virgencita primípara: El próximo semestre no serás ni lo uno ni lo otro.

«El primer paso es el que cuenta. Los primeros principios son tan pequeños y difíciles de advertir como poderosos en influencias, pero cuando se han hallado, es fácil añadir el resto».

He stands and grabs my wrist, leading me to the bedroom. Our bedroom. My dungeon

I open my eyes, and we’re in the air. Like, literally in the air. Our chair is floating at the top of the sixteen-foot ceiling near the chandelier. The rest of the room, bed, nightstands, books, lamps, are up here with us, whirling around as if with a mind of their own.

And you decide to come here and throw all of this shit in my face?” Cass asks in a dangerously low voice. “So, you do remember me,” Luna says sarcastically. “I remember everything now.

Readers are Investors

design by Amanda Kain Cover and author photographs © by Yolanda Perez

That we could be like normal people and live happily ever after. That a love like ours, while brief and intense, would really come only once in a lifetime.

Yolanda was Q’s best friend cousin and Chanel didn’t fuck with any of them anymore. “Big

Love wasn’t an emotion I was able to sustain for very long. I tried once, maybe twice in my life, and it just never panned out. It was a dull emotion and I couldn’t understand the concept so I decided not to dwell on it.

My name is Daniel Delaney and I am the deliverer of wayward souls.

¿Sabe usted cuántas mujeres son víctimas de delitos sexuales en esta ciudad? Más de dos mil cada año. Y casi la mitad son menores de edad. Y probablemente un número similar no denuncia la violación, por lo que estaríamos hablando de cuatro mil violaciones al año. Es decir, cada día violan a más de diez mujeres aquí, hizo un gesto como si los estupros se estuvieran cometiendo en el pasillo. Un pasillo mal iluminado por un tubo fluorescente de color amarillo, exactamente igual que el tubo fluorescente que permanecía apagado en la oficina de Yolanda Palacio. Algunas de las violaciones, por supuesto, acaban en asesinato. Pero no quiero exagerar, la mayoría se conforma con violar y ya está, se acabó, a otra cosa. Sergio no supo qué decir. ¿Sabe usted cuántas personas trabajamos en el Departamento de Delitos Sexuales? Sólo yo.

Desde esa primera intuición que nos hace gritar ¡eureka! y sentirnos enamorados del oficio de escribir, hasta el texto final, hay que atravesar momentos de incertidumbre y desaliento y lidiar con esa sensación de que las palabras no "afinan" como queremos, y que es necesario volverlas a trabajar hasta sentir que las tocamos con algo nuestro que se nos revela, únicamente, gracias al hecho de haber atravesado ese proceso.

Hay un tiempo de soledad en la escritura en el que nadie, por más que quiera y por mucho o poco que sepa del oficio, puede ayudar, y así llegamos a ese punto del taller: a esa escritura que puede comenzar -una vez más- con el cursor titilando un largo rato y diciéndonos: "Escribe: ¿no decías que ya todo estaba tan claro?

Muchas veces, sin embargo, he notado, y para nadie en Latinoamérica es un secreto, la carencia o la debilidad de ese acopio de lecturas que nutren la escritura, que brindan recursos que se incorporan a la psiquis como una segunda piel y a las que muchas veces recurre un escritor sin apenas darse cuenta y sin tener conciencia de la reserva que ha ido guardando en su memoria sensible y poética.

Ese lazo invisible que les unía era mor [...]. Un amor de los que te persigue toda la vida.

El corazón siempre le gana la batalla a la razón.

El amor te encontrará aunque no lo busques, aunque huyas de él, y cuando eso suceda, abre tu corazón, siéntelo, déjalo correr por tu alma.

This is the truth. My family comes from a long line of women whose heartbeats sound like a needle run out of vinyl.

I replicated those intimate memorials of rigor and grits with my own hands, now leaning over a casket to straighten the lapel on Shawn's black suit and red tie whisper his name in psalm

Me quedo pensando en tanto que me faltó preguntarle, y entonces insisto, y vuelvo a pedirle a mi madre que me hable de esos días sin clase y del aire crispado y de las monjas pegadas del radio y de aquel país ardiendo, que es también mi país en llamas. Me dice que ya no se acuerda, y vuelvo a acordarme del cuento: "Quiero que me cuente cada día, para que no lo sople el tiempo. Tal vez para escribirlo: dejarlo agarrado con tinta a un papel para siempre".

Me rebelo contra la prisa que se ha apoderado de la escuela y que ha olvidado sus ancestros -scholé, en griego, es ocio-, y su tiempo destinado, justamente, a "perder tiempo" para detenerse a mirar la forma de las nubes -la forma de los sueños-. En estos tiempos en los que todas las líneas se han movido, ¿qué sentido tiene tarea de colorear sin salirse de la línea?

Del fondo de la memoria emergen cantos y arrullos, muchas veces sin sentido. Poco importa lo que dicen: importa lo que suscitan. (Voz, palabra, encantamiento. Ritmo que mece y conforta). ¿Qué otra cosa, sino esa, es la experiencia poética?

Como en los juegos de la infancia, las palabras eran esa comida invisible que me servía en tacitas de mentira para saciar la sed de imaginar.

Leer es asistir a esa conversación entre los que están -aquí y ahora-, los que viven lejos o murieron y los que vivirán cuando no estemos.

She’s a pretender to pain—a false prophet of unimaginable pleasure. I’ll show her what it’s like to worship in a true moment of ecstasy.

A damaged heart, broken will and with, what I would imagine, a mind rotting with what you will witness, but you’ll walk away,

The only thing I know for sure is that I’ll make a grand masterpiece of her, and she’ll be happy here.

A secret melody that only I can witness as they greet Death in the afterlife and are fucked horribly by whatever demons await them.

I’m a bit of a chameleon, and I always adapt to what I feel they want. She wants me. All of me. And I intend to show her exactly who I really am.

I like to stand above my prey; to assert that I am the dominant one, and that they should be humbled to stand, kneel, bleed, beg, or cry before me.

Don’t you understand? Don’t you see? It was you. It. Was. Always. You.

Sentía que ella era como aquella tierra, dura y resistente. El sol podía desmenuzarla, pero incluso en forma de polvo, permanecía allí, a la espera de la tormenta.

El amor de [é] le daba fuerzas, lo conformaba todo. Era una roca bajo sus pies, un timón de la vida en sus manos y una puerta hacia su propio destino que sabía que podía cruzar cuando quisiera; algo que le infundía que era ella quien controlaba cada paso en el camino que estaba empezando.

I wouldn’t tell him that I found his damaged thoughts to be unusually beautiful because I was afraid he would keep me alive, and death would be much better than a life lived in the house of the devil.

2. In one of our visits, I met a fourth-year high school student, who was three months shy from graduation. Before Yolanda hit, he was studying for his exams with his girlfriend. It was supposed to be the last Christmas they would be dependent on their allowances. They dreamed of traveling together after college. It was going to be their first time. They never had money to spare before. But in three months, they thought, everything would be all right. They only had to wait a few more months. After all, they had already waited for four years. What he didn’t expect was the fact that the storm [Typhoon Haiyan] would be so strong he would have to choose between saving his girlfriend and her one-year-old niece. For months, he would stare longingly at the sea, at the exact same spot he found his girlfriend, with a piece of galvanized iron that was used for roofing pierced through her stomach. It was a relief that one of the first projects we started under DPWH Secretary Mark Villar was the Leyte Tide Embankment, a storm surge protection structure that would serve as the first line of defense for residents of Tacloban, Palo, and Tanauan in Leyte should another typhoon hit the region.” - Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo , Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual 2nd Edition (p. 226, Build, Build, Build Projects Eastern Visayas)

In one of our visits, I met a fourth-year high school student, who was three months shy from graduation. Before Yolanda hit, he was studying for his exams with his girlfriend. It was supposed to be the last Christmas they would be dependent on their allowances. They dreamed of traveling together after college. It was going to be their first time. They never had money to spare before. But in three months, they thought, everything would be all right. They only had to wait a few more months. After all, they had already waited for four years. What he didn’t expect was the fact that the storm [Typhoon Haiyan] would be so strong he would have to choose between saving his girlfriend and her one-year-old niece. For months, he would stare longingly at the sea, at the exact same spot he found his girlfriend, with a piece of galvanized iron that was used for roofing pierced through her stomach. It was a relief that one of the first projects we started under DPWH Secretary Mark Villar was the Leyte Tide Embankment, a storm surge protection structure that would serve as the first line of defense for residents of Tacloban, Palo, and Tanauan in Leyte should another typhoon hit the region.” - Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo , Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual 2nd Edition (p. 226, Build, Build, Build Projects Eastern Visayas)

Several years after Typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines, international development organizations remained to help in the recovery and rehabilitation process. In my mind, it was difficult to talk about sustainable development when students had to risk their lives just to go to school, when farmers and fishers had to take whatever the middlemen were willing to give because transportation of their produce proved too difficult. A number of municipalities could only be accessed through boats. Whenever it rained, families would have to make a decision whether to risk their lives or lose their income. It was at this point that I realized that if we were to achieve real and inclusive economic growth, then a good infrastructure network was necessary. I would have never thought that in a matter of years I would join the Build, Build, Build team.” - Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo , Night Owl: A Nationbuilder’s Manual 2nd Edition (p. 10, Why do I support Build, Build, Build? )

Nakilala ko ang isang 4th year high school na estudyante. Tatlong buwan na lang ay magtatapos na siya. Bago ang paghagupit ng Yolanda, nag-aaral siya para sa kaniyang mga pagsusulit kasama ang kaniyang kasintahan. Pangarap nilang maglakbay nang magkasama pagkatapos ng kolehiyo. Ito ang magiging kanilang unang pagkakataon. Kailangan lang nilang maghintay ng ilang buwan. Ang hindi niya inaasahan, sa tindi ng paghagupit ng bagyo ay kinailangan niyang pumili sa pagitan ng pagliligtas sa kaniyang kasintahan at sa kaniyang isang taong gulang na pamangkin. Sa loob ng maraming buwan, pinagmamasdan niya ang mismong lugar kung saan natagpuan niya ang kaniyang kasintahang may isang pirasong yero na nakatusok sa tiyan nito. Para akong nakahinga ng maluwag nang ang isa sa mga unang proyektong sinimulan namin sa ilalim ng pamumuno ni DPWH Secretary Mark Villar ay ang Leyte Tide Embankment, ang magsisilbing unang linya ng depensa para sa mga residente ng Tacloban, Palo, at Tanauan sa Leyte kung sakaling tumamang muli ang bagyo sa rehiyon.” - Night Owl: Edisyong Filipino (p. 226, Proyektong Build, Build, Build Silangang Visayas)

Makalipas ang ilang taon matapos nanalasa ang Bagyong Yolanda sa Pilipinas, patuloy pa rin ang pagtulong ng mga international development organizations sa rehabilitasyon. Sa isip ko, mahirap pag-usapan ang tungkol sa sustainable development kung ang mga mag-aaral ay kailangan ipagsapalaran ang kanilang buhay makapunta lang sa paaralan; kung ang mga magsasaka at mangingisda ay napipilitang kunin kung anuman ang inaalok na presyo ng ahente dahil ang paghahatid ng kanilang ani at huli ay napakahirap. Ang ilang mga bayan ay napupuntahan lamang gamit ang mga bangka. Kapag umuulan, kailangang mamili ng mga pamilya kung ipagsasapalaran ang kanilang buhay o mawala ang kanilang kita. Sa puntong iyon ko napagtanto na kung nais natin makamit ang inclusive growth, kinakailangan ang isang mahusay na infrastructure network. Hindi ko akalain na matapos lang ang ilang taon ay sasali ako sa Build, Build, Build ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte.” - Night Owl: Edisyong Filipino (p. 10, Bakit ko Sinusuportahan ang Build, Build, Build?)

because she knew that bad dreams sometimes came true.

It's really quite simple, but when you allow emotions to take the lead, the obvious becomes a twisted yarn of confusion

These walls had a way of manipulating their surroundings and thoughts, making impossible things appear real. It had a way of making dreams and nightmares feel as real as being awake.

sin prisa y sin pausa

An angel wants to know the face of the devil,” he mused more to himself than to me. “If I allow this, will it satisfy you?

What is it, you fucking freak? If it was anything like that fork thing he put on me, I would most likely find a way to just kill myself. Salvation be damned

I felt guilty about the broken china; the fallen pot ring; the fancy towels, now ruined; the dinner . . . but most of all, I was worried about Yolanda, who was in excruciating pain from burns. . . . Sean’s

Say not the days are evil. Who’s to blame? And fold the hands and say, oh, shame! Stand up! Speak out, and bravely, in God’s name, be strong!