Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary.

Journalism has been very important for me - for a long time I made my living as a journalist, and it also serves as a source of ideas. Many of the things I have written I would not have written without the experience of being a journalist.

Science is still only a candle glimmering in a great pitch-dark cavern.

writing fiction is the best thing there is because absolutely everything is possible!

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.

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

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