"Eroticism has its own moral justification because it says that pleasure is enough for me; it is a statement of the individual's sovereignty."

"There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity."

"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."

"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."

"It isn't true that convicts live like animals: animals have more room to move around."

"No matter how ephemeral it is, a novel is something, while despair is nothing."

"Prosperity or egalitarianism - you have to choose. I favor freedom - you never achieve real equality anyway: you simply sacrifice prosperity for an illusion."

"You cannot teach creativity - how to become a good writer. But you can help a young writer discover within himself what kind of writer he would like to be."

"Maintain democracy or go to dictatorship: that is what is at stake in these elections."