If you didn't grow up like I did then you don't know, and if you don't know it's probably better you don't judge.

And because love, real love, is not so easily shed.

You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture. That's what happened with your girlfriend, Paloma- she stooped to pick up her purse and your heart flew out of you.

You're Dominican only if you do this, this, and that. And if you do this and that, you'll be accepted to a certain degree and if you don't, people will scorn you for it.

I think that most of my writer friends are really compulsive. I think that's great. It's wonderful for them. It's just not my bag. It's not the way I work. But again, it's probably why my friend has ten books out and I have two.

Books are wonderful, but they aren't that powerful.

You need to learn how to walk the world, he told me. There's a lot out there.