There's basically an element of fiction in everything you remember. Imagination and memory are almost the same brain processes. When I write fiction, I know that I'm using a bunch of lies that I've made up to create some form of truth. When I write a memoir, I'm using true elements to create something that will always be somehow fictionalized.

I come from the so-called Third World (what is the Second)?

At my age days dissolve like salt in water; the day's gone and I don't even know what I've done with the hours.

My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses.

Heart is what drives us and determines our fate. That is what I need for my characters in my books: a passionate heart. I need mavericks, dissidents, adventurers, outsiders and rebels, who ask questions, bend the rules and take risks.

I'm such a control freak. I want to control even my own death. Decide when I will die and how.

What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse.