I write novels because there is something I don't understand in reality.

I didn't choose literature. Literature chose me. There was no decision on my side.

My greatest aspiration was always to live in the tropics.

I began teaching in New York because I needed to stay in the United States and didn't have my immigration papers in order, so working for a university was a way of resolving the issue.

I had stories that needed more space than the hour and a half or two hours a movie gives you.

I'm not terribly happy about rock and roll. Certain rock music is uninspiring, numbing; it makes you feel like an idiot.

Modern American cinema seems to me superficial. The intention is to understand a certain reality, and the result is nothing but a photographing of that reality.