Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life.

Reading was such an enrichment of my life. And it was that pleasure that I had as a very young reader probably that is the origin of my vocation.

No democracy is born perfect, and none ever gets to be perfect. Yet democracy is superior to authoritarian and totalitarian regimes because, unlike them, democracy is perfectible.

It is rare and almost impossible for a novel to have only one narrator.

That is one thing I am sure of amid my many uncertainties regarding the literary vocation: deep inside, a writer feels that writing is the best thing that ever happened to him, or could ever happen to him, because as far as he is concerned, writing is the best possible way of life, never mind the social, political, or financial rewards of what he might achieve through it.

In general, I think my freedom of invention is not limited when I use historical characters.

When I was young, when I started to write, we were totally convinced that literature was a kind of weapon.