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.

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

If you are killed because you are a writer, that's the maximum expression of respect, you know.

You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be.

We were trained as writers with the idea that literature is something that can change reality, that it's not just a very sophisticated entertainment, but a way to act.

The secret to a masterpiece is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration.

But what do I have? The things I'm told and the things I tell, that's all. And as far as I know, that never yet made anyone fly.