No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing.

Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections.

Literature is a form of permanent insurrection. Its mission is to arouse, to disturb, to alarm, to keep men in a constant state of dissatisfaction with themselves.

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

There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity.

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

I always write a draft version of the novel in which I try to develop, not the story, not the plot, but the possibilities of the plot. I write without thinking much, trying to overcome all kinds of self-criticism, without stopping, without giving any consideration to the style or structure of the novel, only putting down on paper everything that can be used as raw material, very crude material for later development in the story.