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

I've put up with too much, too long, and now I'm just too intelligent, too powerful, too beautiful, too sure of who I am finally to deserve anything less.

I am obsessed with becoming a woman comfortable in her skin.

My weapon has always been language, and I've always used it, but it has changed. Instead of shaping the words like knives now, I think they're flowers, or bridges.

You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are.

The beauty of literature is you allow readers to see things through other peoples eyes. All good books do this.

'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. 'Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.

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

People know when you're speaking from el corazón. You have that pain. Take that pain and do something with it. That's very powerful.

The world we live in is a house on fire and the people we love are burning.

You don't want somebody who doesn't know his own heart, do you? You'll find someone who's brave enough to love you. Someday. One day. Not today.

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct.

A film based on a jolly good John Grisham book is fine, but I like to get a bit under the skin

I'm just an entertainer. All I want to be is funny. I never aspired to play Hamlet.

It's abundantly clear by now that no DRM system can stop serious pirates. A DRM system that stops serious pirates, and simultaneously gives broad leeway to ordinary users, is even harder to imagine.

I hadn't originally intended to do any reading, what if I did read one book more or one book less, whether I read or not wouldn't make a difference, I would still be waiting to get cremated.

I'm not interested in provoking people, but only in trying to be consoling.

We cannot burn Mick Jagger. We want the effect, but we can't burn him.

It is important to learn as much as you can about the person and then throw it all away so that you're not in any way doing some sort of mimicry.

A weeping woman is a bucket with no bottom.

Every city I go to is an opportunity to paint, whether it's Omaha or Hawaii.