In my opinion, the most significant works of the twentieth century are those that rise beyond the conceptual tyranny of genre; they are, at the same time, poetry, criticism, narrative, drama, etc.

The vitality of a culture is in its capacity to assimilate foreign influences. The culture that's defensive and closed condemns itself to decadence.

A contemporary artist can use the findings of all epochs and all styles, from the most primitive literary expressions up to the most refined products of the baroque.

Marks of Identity is, among other things, the expression of the process of alienation in a contemporary intellectual with respect to his own country.

The fundamental purpose of a novel like Count Julian is to achieve the unity of object and means of representation, the fusion of treason as scheme and treason as language.

The writer cannot abandon himself simply to inspiration, and feign innocence vis a vis language, because language is never innocent.

In Count Julian I simply proposed to create a text which would allow for diverse levels of reading.

In times when religious or political faith or hope predominates, the writer functions totally in unison with society, and expresses society's feelings, beliefs, and hopes in perfect harmony.

I not only lived physically away from my native land, but the values and critical judgments of those closest to me became stranger and stranger.

As I began to discover my own truth and endeavored to possess it with CLARITY, I became more and more alienated from that which my companions held, or professed to hold.

My exile was not only a physical one, motivated exclusively by political reasons; it was also a moral, social, ideological and sexual exile.

There is no rest for the humble except in despising the great, whose only thought of the people is inspired by self-interest or sadism.

Our love is the reason romance was created.

You have to learn to recognize your own depths.

Stay up... 'till you come up... when you come up stay up!

Here I am, " I say to the palm trees. "I can do this. Watch me.

There have only been two geniuses in the world — Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare.

This book is dedicated to Wilbur and Orville Wright, without whom air sickness would still be just a dream.

Accept your own and be yourself!

I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.

Boys, it is just like the Alamo. Somebody should have by God helped those Texans. I'm going to Vietnam.