Well, I write in exile because I cannot return to my country, so I have no choice but to see myself as an exiled writer.

A good smoker, like a good lover, always takes his time with a cigar.

I was never a true journalist, I was a movie critic.

I think writers rush in where everybody is very frightened to tread

I think that I've tried many times to get Cuba in my writings, especially Havana, which was once a great and fascinating city.

When I write, the first blank page, or any blank page, means nothing to me. What means something is a page that has been filled with words.

Cigars must be smoked one at a time, peaceably, with all the leisure in the world. Cigarettes are of the instant, Cigars are for eternity.

I was an avid radio fan when I was a boy, as well as a great lover of comic strips

So I do not consider myself a chronicler of my fatherland or even a chronicler of Havana

What I do believe is that there is always a relationship between writing and reading, a constant interplay between the writer on the one hand and the reader on the other

Writing for me, even what you call serious writing, is play.

Perhaps that was a thing about attractive women: A rejection demanded their respect, made them trust you more.

We run when we're scared, we run when we're ecstatic, we run away from our problems and run around for a good time.

World War II was the last government program that really worked.

If you ask the great city, ‘Who is this person?, ’ she will answer, ‘He is my child.

I saw a woman wearing a sweatshirt with Guess on it. I said, Thyroid problem?

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn't as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

I am willing to let go. I release others to experience whatever is meaningful to them, and I am free to create that which is meaningful to me.

In order to be treated fairly and equally, chidren have to be treated differently.

No one places her dreams in the hands of those who might destroy them.

My mantra is that I can go back home at anytime. I have a degree, I am smart, and I am honest. I care about my career and what I do, yet I know my lane and where I desire to go.