“The contract between the author and the reader is a game. And the game . . . is one of the greatest invetions of Western civilization: the game of telling stories, inventing characters, and creating the imaginary paradise of the individual, from whence no one can be expelled because, in a novel, no one owns the truth and everyone has the right to be heard and understood.”

“Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.”

“I use a lot of film images, analogies, and imagination.”

“I am not interested in slice of life, what I want is a slice of the imagination.”

“Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.”

“Like all of Latin America, Mexico after independence in 1821 turned its back on a triple heritage: on the Spanish heritage, because we were newly liberated colonies, and on our Indian and black heritages, because we considered them backward and barbaric. We looked towards France, England and the U.S., to become progressive democratic republics.”

“…my books are derived from city images, and the city of my dreams or nightmares is Mexico City. (The Art of Fiction, No. 68. The Paris Review, No. 82, Winter 1981.)”

“Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.”

“Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.”

“Writing is a struggle against silence.”

“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.”