I have one main reader, Miriam Gomez, my wife. She reads everything I write - I have not finished writing something and she is already reading it.

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 little esteeme to see your visage and figure, little doe I regard the night and darknesse thereof, for you are my only light.

DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH ANYONE IN THIS WORLD..........IF U DO SO U R INSULTING YOURSELF

Give me a window and I'll stare out it.

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can't attain it in anything.

Desires must be simple and definite. They defeat their own purpose should they be too many, too confusing, or beyond a man's training to accomplish

I think for a lot of people that had seen me do Snabba Cash, after watching The Killing, I think they got a sense that I could do different kinds of characters.

As I get older I've come to realize that the best way to "get even" with someone is to forgive - and then forget.

The motivation for me, was them telling me what I could not be.

Be relentlessly generous, without focusing on when it will come back to you.

With age comes wisdom and confidence, and I don't feel like I'm seeking approval as much as I used to from other people.