Writing is my job. I don't think of it as art.

Only that, nothing more - a tiny beam of light to show some hidden aspect of reality, to help decipher and understand it and thus to initiate, if possible, a change in the conscience of some readers.

Boredom, Timothy Duane assured me, is nothing more than anger without passion.

In Venezuela, when I was living there, crime was growing. You couldn't feel safe anywhere. You couldn't leave your car in the street because it would be stolen. You coun't live in your house if you didn't have a high-security alarm system, because you would be burglarized seven times a week.

When you tell a story in the kitchen to a friend, it's full of mistakes and repetitions. It's good to avoid that in literature, but still, a story should feel like a conversation. It's not a lecture.

My writing comes not from the happy moments, but from struggle and grief.

Conceit is a privilege of the ignorant; the wise man is humble because he knows how little he knows.