Gary Soto - Work

Work

Soto's poetry focuses on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano. Regarding his relationship with the Mexican-American community, Soto commented "as a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I’m not a cheerleader. I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life."

Soto writes novels, plays and memoirs, and has edited several literary anthologies. His story "The No-Guitar Blues" was made into a film, and he produced another film based on his book "The Pool Party." He is a prolific writer of children's books.

About his work Joyce Carol Oates noted "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."

Read more about this topic:  Gary Soto

Famous quotes containing the word work:

    And now my work is done, which neither the anger of
    Jove, nor fire, nor sword, nor the gnawing tooth of time
    shall ever be able to undo.... Wherever Rome’s power
    extends over the conquered world, I shall have mention
    on men’s lips.
    Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)

    Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of Heaven and Hell.
    Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    Isolation in creative work is an onerous thing. Better to have negative criticism than nothing at all.
    Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)