I have a very acute sense of place and time, so all of my stories are rooted in a place and a time.

I don't think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be.

The media could do a much better job, that's for sure, especially the media that targets women... Human rights? They couldn't care less!

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'm living in California but I have a place that is mine in Chile and I belong there. I am no longer an exile.

You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend, or not.

What is truer than truth? Answer: the story.