In Latin America, even atheists are Catholics.
The citizen takes his city for granted far too often. He forgets to marvel.
The United States condoned dictatorships in Latin America for much of the 20th century.
My system for staying young is to work a lot, to always have a project on the go.
At 50 I find there is a long line of characters and shapes demanding words just outside my window.
Diplomacy in a sense is the opposite of writing. You have to disperse yourself so much: the lady who comes in crying because shes had a fight with the secretary; exports and imports; students in trouble; thumbtacks for the embassy.
I have two children who died before reaching 30, so who am I to complain about being alive?
I must write the book out in my head now, before I sit down.
Here among my books, my wife, my friends and my loves, I have plenty of reasons to keep living.
The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned.
I love having critics for breakfast.
In literature, you know only what you imagine.
No, it’s not that they’re bad. It’s that they’re obliged to pretend they’re good. They’ve been brought up to deceive and be cunning, to protect themselves from our society. I don’t want to be like that.
I don’t think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.
Robinson Crusoe, the first capitalist hero, is a self-made man who accepts objective reality and then fashions it to his needs through the work ethic, common sense, resilience, technology, and, if need be, racism and imperialism.
Culture consists of connections, not of separations: to specialize is to isolate.
Memory is satisfied desire.
In the name of certainty, the greatest crimes have been committed against humanity.
I am not interested in slice of life, what I want is a slice of the imagination.
I had the good fortune of having a happy, closely knit family.