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

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.

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.

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

Sleeping is like meditation: it's good to rest the body but also to shut the mind down for a bit.

All we have is our vote. But it's powerful.

People are always nice; I never get anything mean said to me on the street.

The skin and shell of things Though fair are not Thy wish nor prayer but got My meer despair of wings.

I am vain. I think vanity is a good thing. It's done more good things for me than it has not.

I never really got into any records purely thinking of them as a breakup record. I mean, honestly, for me, listening to a breakup record whilst dealing with one seems counterproductive!

And that was the closest I've ever come to an epiphany.

The day that witnesses the conversion of our ministers into political and philosophical speculators or scientific lecturers, will witness the final decay of clerical weight and influence.

Today's Democrat Party believes that distinct American culture is corrupt, biased, racist, sexist, prejudicial, homophobic. There is nothing about it they want to preserve.

Money is only a human invention. I get paid for my work, it's a system of trade, but it's not my purpose and reason for living.