One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.

One can't fight with oneself, for this battle has only one loser.

I don't accept the idea that literature can be just entertainment and that there is no consequences of literature in the real world.

I think in a country like mine, violence is at the root of all human relations.

I learned to read at the age of five, in Brother Justiniano's class at the De la Salle Academy in Cochabamba, Bolivia. It is the most important thing that has ever happened to me. Almost seventy years later I remember clearly how the magic of translating the words in books into images enriched my life, breaking the barriers of time and space.

Prosperity or egalitarianism -- you have to choose. I favor freedom -- you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion.