There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity.

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

Its easy to know what you want to say, but not to say it

I have been always fascinated and seduced by history, which I think is very close, very close to literature.

North American society could not have reached its state of high development and modernity had it not been an open society.

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.

Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably appears in great literature: that men and women of all nations and places are essentially equal, and only injustice sows among them discrimination, fear, and exploitation.