As time has gone on and we're at the end of the 20th century and major publishing is a big business, yes, of course we're going to get a lot of plain, mediocre trash. There are a lot of writers who get huge advances for books that don't go anywhere and they have to burn them somewhere or throw them away. I always think about all the poor trees that have been sacrificed.

For things to have value in man's world, they are given the role of commodities. Among man's oldest and most constant commodity is woman.

When I hear that Jennifer Lopez is such a role model for Latinas, on the one hand I respect her for her business sense and I respect her for her ambition. But she's in the entertainment world. She's done it on her looks and very specifically on her anatomy. Madonna is also considered a great businesswoman and so is Yoko Ono. I feel if I had a young daughter right now, I would feel a little discouraged if that was my daughter's primary role model for success and for young people, for Latinas and Latinos.

Mexico. Melancholy, profoundly right and wrong, it embraces as it strangulates.

Paris, true to its promise, had been a place of civilized indecencies, or uncivil decencies.

Something about giving himself over to a woman was worse than having lunch with the devil.

Human sexuality has been regulated and shaped by men to serve men's needs.