I am the only British writer who writes in Spanish

I have one main reader, Miriam Gomez, my wife. She reads everything I write - I have not finished writing something and she is already reading it.

I was able to read a movie before I was able to read a book

It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down.

My parents were founders of the Cuban Communist Party, and I grew up extremely poor.

Writing for me, even what you call serious writing, is play.

The relationship between reader and characters is very difficult. It is even more peculiar than the relationship between the writer and his characters.