…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.)

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

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

Writing is a struggle against silence.

The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States.

Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history.

I need, therefore I imagine.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death.

What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.

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

You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die.

True love is not a hide and seek game: in true love, both lovers seek each other.

I don't mind functional medicine. I suppose it has to be better than dysfunctional medicine.

The genius of a great magician is as impressive as the genius of a great scientist.

I do not choose to run for President in 1928.

Hitting the gym to release stress is not nearly as effective as hitting the people that cause the stress to begin with.

Live by faith. Live out loud. And never stop believing God-day by day.

I'm a lot more grounded now, a lot more settled in my skin.

The sharpest tools in the box are not always the best tools for the job.

Film is a director's medium, and a film set is a complicated military structure - I have to keep reminding myself to stay in my place, or all will burst into chaos.

Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies.