I describe my works as books, but my publishers in Spain, in the United States, and elsewhere insist on calling them novels

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

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

Intelligence and wisdom are certainly compatible, however they are rarely seen in each other’s company.

Action without Vision is Blind

Our ego occupies so much space, there is little room for anything else.

If people ever question your loyalty, you never had theirs.

Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.

We [ with Andy Samberg] knew each other for the last few years, our names are similar, our looks are a little bit similar, and our backgrounds are similar. The Judaism is quite similar.

I didnt have any particular talent for fiction. I took a class in college.

We have to make a mark, even if it's only a scribble.

We choose what and how we believe, and our beliefs are tools that we then use to make things happen ... or not.

We've got a wonderful economic formula in this country.