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

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

If the sleep of reason produces monsters, what does the sleep of unreason produce?

As with . . . even the written word, the remote overview is one more wrenched perspective that developing civilization has glued, collagelike, to the once unified experience of life.

When you’re being celebrated and flying high, don’t allow fanatics (fans) to elevate you so far out that you forget whose sky it is.

The stressful life leads to neglect of spirituality and wellness.

I like simple things. I like to sneak in the theatre and watch movies. I'm a movie buff.

A man of great common sense and good taste - meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

The soul, too has her virginity and must bleed a little before bearing fruit.

Not only does the proportion of the poor increase with the growth of the city, but their condition becomes more wretched.

I know he would die if you died, Luce

I do believe in choice, the freedom of choice and carving out your own happiness.