Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.

It is said the sesta is one of the only gifts the Europeans brought to South America, but I imagine the Brazilians could have figured out how to sleep in the afternoon without having to endure centuries of murder and enslavement.

reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author is beside the point. The reader and the book have their own relationship now, and should be left alone to work things out for themselves.

I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man.

Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?