For fiction, I'm not particularly nationalistic. I'm not like the Hugo Chavez of Latin American letters, you know? I want people to read good work.

I think I'm an American writer writing about Latin America, and I'm a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.

I do feel fortunate to have some knowledge of the great Latin American writers, including some that are probably not that well known in English. I'm thinking of Jose Maria Arguedas, whom I read when I was living in Lima, and who really impacted the way I viewed my country.

We want to engage in ever closer synergy with Latin American and Caribbean partners.

El trabajo me parece una estupidez odiosa a la que es difícil escapar

Well, by the standards of a lot of countries, by Latin American standards, it wasn't so bad.