It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.

A man knows he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.

...human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but...life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.

In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That's the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it.

People spend a lifetime thinking about how they would really like to live. I asked my friends and no one seems to know very clearly. To me it's very clear now. I wish my life could have been like the years when I was writing 'Love in the Time of Cholera.'

Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.