Clap When You Land Quotes

“A queen
offers her hand to be kissed,
& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Fight until you can’t breathe, & if you have to forfeit, you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Can you be from a place
you have never been?

You can find the island stamped all over me,
but what would the island find if I was there?

Can you claim a home that does not know you,
much less claim you as its own?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Maybe anger is like a river. Maybe it crumbles everything around it. Maybe it hides so many skeletons beneath the rolling surface.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“The body is a funny piece of meat. How it inflates and deflates in order to keep you alive. But how simple words can fill you up or pierce the air out of you.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“But one thing I learned from the Saints,
when the crossroads are open to you, you must decide a path.
I will not stand still while the world makes my choices.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“The patron saint of the ocean is known for containing many parts of herself: she is a nurturer, but she is also a ferocious defender. & so I remember that to walk this world you must be kind but also fierce.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“You do not let your words stunt unknown possibilities.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Mami wanted me to be a lady:
sit up straight, cross my ankles,

let men protect me.
Papi wanted me to be a leader.

To think quick & strike hard,
to speak rarely, but when I did,

to always be heard. Me?
Playing chess taught me a queen is both:

deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless.
Quiet & cunning. A queen

offers her hand to be kissed,

& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time.

But what happens when those principles
only apply in a game? & in the real world,

I am not treated as a lady or a queen,
as a defender or opponent

but as a girl so many want to strike off the board.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“How can you lose an entire person, only to gain a part of them back in someone entirely new?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“If I say those words, if I snap apart the air with them, whatever is binding me together will split too.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“So he created a theater of his life / & got lost in all the different roles he had to play.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“She is a nurturer but she is also a ferocious defender.
Remember that to walk this world, you must be kind but also fierce”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Papi was a man split in two, / playing a game against himself. // But the problem with that / is that in order to win, you also always lose.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Never, ever, let them see you sweat, negra. Fight until you can’t breathe, & if you have to forfeit, you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Swimming might be the closest to flying
a human being can get. There is something
about your body displacing water

in order to propel through space that makes you feel
Godtouched. That makes me understand evolution,
that we really must have crawled up from the sea.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“I am beginning to learn that life-altering news is often like a premature birth: ill-timed, catching someone unaware, emotionally unprepared & often where they shouldn’t be:”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“There is an artist my mother loved, Juan Gabriel, who was once asked in an interview if he was gay. His reply: What's understood need not be said. I remember how Mami's eyes fluttered to me like a bee on a flower acknowledging the pollen is sweet.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Dreams are like the pieces of fluff that get caught in your hair; they stand out for a moment, but eventually you wash them away, or long fingers reach in & pluck them out & you appear as what everyone expects.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“I wrap myself tight around the feelings I cannot share, an unopened present, a gift no one wants.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“This whole time she's swallowed her words like bitter pills
not realizing they were slow-drip poison.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“If you asked me what I was,

& you meant in terms of culture,
I’d say Dominican.

No hesitation,
no question about it.

Can you be from a place
you have never been?

You can find the island stamped all over me,
but what would the island find if I was there?

Can you claim a home that does not know you,
much less claim you as its own?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Things you can buy
with half a million dollars:

a car that looks more
like a space creature than a car.

A designer platinum purse
to carry a small dog. A small dog.

A performance by your favorite
musical artist for your birthday.

A diamond-encrusted
bottle of Dominican rum.

A mansion. A yacht. A hundred
acres of land. Houses, but not homes.

All four years of college
or beautician school & certificate.

Five hundred flights
to the Dominican Republic.

A half million Dollar Store chess sets,
with their accompanying boxes.

A hundred thousand copies
of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Apparently a father.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“If you are not from an island.
you cannot understand
what it means to be of water:

to learn to curve around the bend,
to learn to rise with rain,
to learn to quench an outside thirst

while all the while
you grow shallow
until there is not one drop

left for you.

I know this is what Tia does not say.
Sand & soil & sinew & smiles:
all bartered. & who reaps? Who eats?

Not us. Not me.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Who knew death must be so damn polite?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Onward. Always onward.

I blow her a kiss
across the linoleum, &
whisper blessings under my breath,

divide a piece of God
from my heart
for her to carry.

I know she does the same for me.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“It is easy in a moment like this to want to speak over this woman, to tell Tía there is nothing more we can do, to say out loud the woman is lucky that her lungs still draw breath. But I learned young, you do not speak of the dying as if they are already dead. You do not call bad spirits into the room, & you do not smudge a person's dignity by pretending they are not still alive, & right in front of you, and perhaps about to receive a miracle. You do not let your words stunt unknown possibilities.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Is this what sisterhood is?
A negotiation of the things you make possible
out of impossible requests?”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“I will not stand still while the world makes my choices. This Yahaira will learn what carving your own way means.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“You can't run from what hurts you or like a dog smelling fear that grief will just keep chasing with ever sharp teeth.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land