“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.”

“Marco Polo had been to China; Vasco de Gama had discovered the route to the Cape. The continent was in ferment, in movement, whereas the Mexican world was … absolutely hermetically closed. The arrival of the Spaniards must have been like the arrival of people from Mars... totally unsuspected aliens. The shock must have been profound…I think it’s one of the reasons behind the downfall of the Aztec Empire. In a sense, I think the Aztec Empire died of astonishment, more than anything else.”

“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.”

“Language is always the companion of Empire and Empire . . . is one Monarch and one Sword.”

“There must be something beyond slaughter and barbarism to support the existence of mankind and we must all help search for it.”

“I believe in books that do not go to a ready-made public, I’m looking for readers I would like to make. To win them, to create readers rather than to give something that readers are expecting. That would bore me to death.”

“The great wheel of fire of ancient wisdom, silence and word engendering the myth of the origin, human action engendering the epic voyage toward the other; historical violence revealing the tragic flaw of the hero who must then return to the land of origin; myth of death and renewal and silence from which new words and images will arise, keeps on turning in spite of the blindness of purely lineal thought.”