I first came out against Castro in June 1968, fifteen months after my book had been published, and you cannot imagine how quickly a void was created around me

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.

I enjoy melancholic music and art. They take me to places I don't normally get to go.

You were born with success in you and simply need to give it a pathway of expression.

Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world.

If, of all words of tongue and pen, The saddest are, 'It might have been, 'More sad are these we daily see:'It is, but hadn't ought to be.

Every person lives his real, most interesting life under the cover of secrecy.

Protect those who protect you.

Trying to be a leader, you've got to be really sure of what you're doing and you've got to guide people the right way.

I love to win, but I love to lose almost as much. I love the thrill of victory, and I also love the challenge of defeat.

The terrible attack in Manhattan has given place to a burst of patriotism in the United States.

The deadliest bullshit is odorless, and transparent.