A biography for Carlos Fuenteshasn’t been written yet.
“Language is always the companion of Empire and Empire . . . is one Monarch and one Sword.”
“Don't classify me, read me.”
“The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned.”
“Culture consists of connections, not of separations: to specialize is to isolate.”
“The historical problem of the United States is to admit that it is a multiracial and multi-ethnic nation.”
“In Latin America, even atheists are Catholics.”
“Here among my books, my wife, my friends and my loves, I have plenty of reasons to keep living.”
“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.”
“I use a lot of film images, analogies, and imagination.”
“all that was left to me was certain images and all of them spoke to me of the collapse of a cruel world and the slow construction in its stead of another world, equally cruel.”
“Writing requires the concentration of the writer, demands that nothing else be done except that.”
“Under the veneer of Westernization, the cultures of the Indian world - which have existed for 30,000 years! - continue to live. Sometimes in a magical way, sometimes in the shadows.”
“I like fighting. I get into rows all the time.”
“The novel is the privileged vehicle of two ways of being: narrative and freedom: to be new (novel) in a speech open to all, and to be free in a speech that never concludes.”
“I have two children who died before reaching 30, so who am I to complain about being alive?”
“I must write the book out in my head now, before I sit down.”
“I love having critics for breakfast.”
“I dalje verujem da Sunce izlazi svakoga dana i da svako novo Sunce najavljuje novi dan;dan koji je juče bio budućnost. I dalje verujem da će današnji dan, u trenutku zatvaranja jedne stranice vremena, obećati sutra – ranije nepredvidivo, kasnije neponovljivo”
“I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society.”
“Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.”