I was very young and lived with my grandparents in a villa with white walls in the Calle Ocharan, in Miraflores.

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.

I completely believe that - literature for me is a way of life. That's probably true of all writers or all artists. I think in the end this kind of activity absorbs one in such a way that it becomes one's way of life.

A novel which persuades us of its truth is true however full of lies it may be

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

Death isn't enough. It doesn't remove the stain. But a slap, a whiplash, square on the face, does. Because a man's face is as sacred as his mother or his wife.

A good novel is a conjunction of many factors, the main of which is without a doubt, hard work.