Cervantes is the most important Spanish writer. But he is not the most representative of the Spanish. His irony, his sense of humor - they are too subtle to seem Spanish.

A few British suffragettes everybody laughed at started the cause of equality between men and women.

Here in Spain, there are Argentine Jews, children and grandchildren of immigrants of Jews who fled Germany or Austria in the thirties, and in the seventies during the dictatorship, they had to go into exile again.

I have spent a great deal of my life being part of minorities. Some of the people I admire the most in the world have had the courage to defend, against wind and tide, minority viewpoints in those frightening times when any disagreement with universal conformity is identified as treason.

Money makes people bold and cosmopolitan; if you are poor, you are naturally conservative. Its not easy to be a bohemian when you have to worry about what is going to happen with you and with your next paycheck.

Nothing good ever happens by itself - it is achieved through striving, though this sometimes bears a high price.

Cervantes is the most important Spanish writer. But he is not the most representative of the Spanish. His irony, his sense of humor - they are too subtle to seem Spanish.