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

Memory is a snare, pure and simple; it alters, it subtly rearranges the past to fit the present.

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.

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

There are people with a lot of prejudice, a lot of fear of the unknown. They think that immigration is a danger, when really it is a solution. This is an interesting issue, because it will be a central question of our time.

We must mistrust utopias: they usually end in holocausts.

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.