# Quote — Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory

> If I ask questions about religion that my grandparents didn’t ask, it is not because I am intellectually advanced. I wonder about the existence of God because, unlike my grandparents, I live much of my day in a secular city where I do not measure the hours with the tolling bells of a church.

- Author: [Richard Rodriguez](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez.md)
- Book: [Hunger of Memory](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Rodriguez#Hunger_of_Memory:_The_Education_of_Richard_Rodriguez_(1982)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/if-i-ask

## More from this book

> Of all the institutions in their lives, only the Catholic Church has seemed aware of the fact that my mother and father are thinkers—persons aware of the experience of their lives. Other institutions—the nation’s political parties, the industries of mass entertainment and communications, the companies that employed them—have all treated my parents with condescension.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/of-all-the.md)

> An Hispanic-American writer tells me, ‘I will never give up my family language; I would as soon give up my soul.’ Thus he holds to his chest a skein of words, as though it were the source of his family ties. He credits to language what he should credit to family members. A convenient mistake. For as long as he holds on to words, he can ignore how much else has changed in his life.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/an-hispanic-american-writer.md)

> my name came up in a conversation. Someone at the sherry party had wondered if the professor had seen my latest article on affirmative action. The professor replied with arch politeness, ‘And what does Mr. Rodriguez have to complain about?’ You who read this act of contrition should know that by writing it I seek a kind of forgiveness—not yours. The forgiveness, rather, of those many persons whose absence from higher education permitted me to be classed a minority student. I wish that they would read this. I doubt they ever will.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-rodriguez/hunger-of-memory/my-name-came.md)