I'm the most communal person that exists and a very solitary person. So I think writing is a form of getting to the community and being alone, and it's the best of both possible worlds.

I'm a mongrel in the sense that I'm Spanish, English, Latino, Jewish, north, south - all these things are mixed in me.

We live in the age of the refugee, the age of the exile.

I'm the most communal person that exists and a very solitary person. So I think writing is a form of getting to the community and being alone, and it's the best of both possible worlds.

Those who have never suffered the iniquities of exile cannot possibly understand the significance, the gravitas, of a mattress.

Most writers who leave their country physically have already left it mentally and emotionally.

We can live with lots of things, but we can't live without imagination, we can't live without hope.