There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.

Death is the great Maecenas, Death is the great angel of writing. You must write because you are not going to live any more.

I live through risk. Without risk there is no art. You should always be on the edge of a cliff about to fall down and break your neck.

Cuba needs a dose of perestroika.

By its very nature, the novel indicates that we are becoming. There is no final solution. There is no last word.

The great wheel of fire of ancient wisdom, silence and word engendering the myth of the origin, human action engendering the epic voyage toward the other; historical violence revealing the tragic flaw of the hero who must then return to the land of origin; myth of death and renewal and silence from which new words and images will arise, keeps on turning in spite of the blindness of purely lineal thought.

I am a Mexican. The United States lived seventy-five years with the one party system in Mexico - the PRI - without batting an eyelid, never demanding democracy of Mexico. Democracy came because Mexicans fought for democracy and made a democracy out of our history, our possibilities, our perspectives. Democracy is not something that can be exported like Coca-Cola. It has to be bred from the inside, according to the culture, the conditions of each country.