In a world torn by every kind of fundamentalism - religious, ethnic, nationalist and tribal - we must grant first place to economic fundamentalism, with its religious conviction that the market, left to its own devices, is capable of resolving all our problems. This faith has its own ayatollahs. Its church is neo-liberalism; its creed is profit; its prayers are for monopolies.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

Writing is a struggle against silence.

What America does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is to understand others.

The possibility of being as free with the camera as we are with the pen is a fantastic prospect for the creative life of the 21st century.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

The Mexicans descend from the Aztecs; the Peruvians descend from the Incas; the Argentineans descend from the boats.