“No, it's not that they're bad. It's that they're obliged to pretend they're good. They've been brought up to deceive and be cunning, to protect themselves from our society. I don't want to be like that.”

“I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.”

“One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.”

“I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them. ”

“It's funny how we judge others and don't realize the extent of our disdain until they are no longer there, until they are taken from us. They're taken from us because they've never been ours...”

“The arrival of the Spaniards must have been like the arrival of people from Mars to us would be today. The shock must have been profound…In a sense, I think the Aztec Empire died of astonishment, more than anything else.”

“Love can isolate us from everything around us. But in its absence, we can be filled with the fear that something comparable exists.”