I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.

I do not consider myself a Hispanic writer.

No, absolutely not, writing doesn't have to be like a jigsaw puzzle, it can be a very linear undertaking.

But I do not have the reader in mind when I write. No true writer does that

I was never a true journalist, I was a movie critic.

American literature had always considered writing a very serious matter

Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.