Mexico is only a memory of childhood safety.

I think one of the great primordial fears we have once we become conscious of our aloneness as children is the fear of losing our mother. We have that from the moment we realize we can lose her just in the supermarket. As a child, it was more terrifying than arithmetic.

I think that you need to have books that talk about the lives of the poor, and they need to be involved - involved in acquisitions.

When I was very young I was reading a lot of Latin American fiction, which later would be called "boom fiction."

Like all guests, after a fortnight, grief is best beyond the door.

I was raised in Chicago, so always used Latina. It's what my Father and brothers called ourselves, when we meant the entire Spanish-speaking community of Chicago.

If you know two cultures and two languages, that intermediate place, where the two don't perfectly meet, is really interesting.