There is no creation without tradition. No one creates from nothing.

The French equate intelligence with rational discourse, the Russians with intense soul-searching. For the Mexican, intelligence is inseparable from maliciousness.

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

Reading, writing, teaching, learning, are all activities aimed at introducing civilizations to each other.

Children know how to be cruel, and the cruelty of their elders is the surest residue of the malaise the young feel toward things strange, things other, things that reveal our own ignorance or insufficiency

The language of Mexicans springs from abysmal extremes of power and impotence, domination and resentment.

The women I have loved I have desired for themselves, but also because I feared myself.

Retrospectively, I would agree with Luis Bunuel that sex without sin is like an egg without salt.