When we started publishing, you had to be better than good. You had to be excellent. But as long as people are reading, I don't care what they're reading.

I don't know what the definition of a short story is, and I don't even care to answer that question. That's something somebody in academia would think about. I just want to tell a story, and if people listen, and if it stays with you, it's a story.

People know when you're speaking from el corazón. You have that pain. Take that pain and do something with it. That's very powerful.

I can get by and chatter and talk and tell funny stories, make people laugh, but I don't have as many words, I don't have the vocabulary. I think if I forced myself to read in Spanish - you know, I always say I'm going to, but I lose my patience reading in Spanish, because I really do read the way a third grader does, mouthing the words. That takes a long time!

Sometimes hearing the stories is going to change people's lives much more than if they read it.

Mexicans don't think of ghosts as haunting you.

I would drive on streets that were one-way and think, "Why are they all honking at me?"