Cuba needs a dose of perestroika.

The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned.

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

I believe in books that do not go to a ready-made public. I'm looking for readers I would like to make. To win them, to create readers rather than to give something that readers are expecting. That would bore me to death.

I have never considered myself a writer in exile because I grew up outside of my own country, because my father was a diplomat. Therefore, I grew up in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, the United States, I studied in Switzerland - so I've always had perspective on my country - I am thankful for that.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.