The greatest myth of all is what America is. I think that America is such an incredibly dynamic place because of immigration.

[The biggest disappointment is] that he [Barack Obama] deported everybody and their grandmother.

Ana Iris once asked me if I loved him and I told her about the lights in my old home in the capital, how they flickered and you never knew if they would go out or not. You put down your things and you waited and couldn't do anything really until the lights decided. This, I told her, is how I feel.

A person doesn't mourn forever.

She was the kind of girlfriend God gives you young, so you'll know loss the rest of your life.

Of course we all know that's not how life works. The novel that is our life can end at any time. Sometimes even on page one.

As a Dominican man, you're socialized to be a playboy. You spend a lot of time being taught that women are important, but without the really positive framework of why. You figure out quickly it's because of culo (ass). But there is a sense that it's not that simple.