Writers are the exorcists of their own demons.

Since it is impossible to know what's really happening, we Peruvians lie, invent, dream and take refuge in illusion. Because of these strange circumstances, Peruvian life, a life in which so few actually do read, has become literary.

If you are killed because you are a writer, that's the maximum expression of respect, you know.

That is one thing I am sure of amid my many uncertainties regarding the literary vocation: deep inside, a writer feels that writing is the best thing that ever happened to him, or could ever happen to him, because as far as he is concerned, writing is the best possible way of life, never mind the social, political, or financial rewards of what he might achieve through it.

What is happening in the country for such political, moral and cultural blindness to take hold? Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at play in these elections.

Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.