Every book I think will be my last one because after finishing I have the sense that I've said all I have to say, but I always seem to find a new way of repeating myself.

The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain to you that I don't belong to English though I belong nowhere else

My writing, such as it is, grows out of my sense of discolation, I mean, dislocation. Having lost my place, I write to find my place, or to find once again that I have lost my place.

I was born in Cuba but was made in the USA.

My father's death took me to a place I had never been and a place I had never left. In his absence, I've had to rely more on myself.

I am a loner by nature, and then I'm a writer, which makes me twice a loner.

There's a Cuban saying: Bicho malo nunca muere. Loose translation: The good die young but the wicked live forever. It seems to apply to Fidel. I hope it applies to me.

Literature is breathing. I teach literature the way someone else might teach First Aid.

I read fiction all the time. It's true that I don't like fantasy or science fiction. I like "realistic" novels, particularly those in which nothing much ever happens.

The fact that Iam writing to youin Englishalready falsifies what Iwanted to tell you.My subject:how to explain to youthat I don't belong to Englishthough I belong nowhere else, if not herein English.

The fact that Iam writing to youin Englishalready falsifies what Iwanted to tell you.My subject:how to explain to you that Idon't belong to Englishthough I belong nowhere else

What kind of egoism should one have? It should be such that people accept it.

Enduring the times.

Why choose the lesser evil anyway, when the greater evil is usually higher quality and will last longer before it breaks?

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it.

I'm more of a tomboy than anything and then you see your name on these Top 50 Most Beautiful People lists and you're like, 'What?'

Wit and Humor - if any difference, it is in duration - lightning and electric light. Same material, apparently; but one is vivid, and can do damage - the other fools along and enjoys elaboration.

A girl who bonnets a policeman with an ashcan full of bottles is obviously good wife-and-mother timber.

We cannot trust in our own strength, but only in Jesus and in his mercy.