"If I had parallel lives to pursue, I would also want one as a painter."

"The thematic, psychological, and cultural concerns of a writer are more relevant than whatever literary mode he or she chooses to deal with in any given novel."

"I've always been interested in the relationship between total external surround, culture, the political matrix, technology, etc., and the internal human consciousness."

"I believe that interest in heroes is universal and eternal."

"I was a precocious reader."

"In America, if you don't do a 100 million dollars, you've done nothing."

"I never learned to read music."

"Mexico was conquered more by manipulation of myth and archetype."

"There are certain things that ordinary people have that celebrities don't have."

"I write in American slang."

"I get work because I'm primarily a novelist but I've become script doctor. I can work back and forth between French and English."

"English is taking over the world. I just wrote a piece about it. And it's not by design. The United States dominates because it's the biggest market."

"If it's not American, the French won't go see it."

"I must admit to being greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces."

"As a child, I read science fiction, but from the very beginnings of my reading for pleasure, I read a lot of non-fictional history, particularly historical biography."

"The world has become more complex as technology and easy travel mixes cultures without homogenizing them."

"It's trite to say that the world has gotten smaller in the age of globalization, but my travels have told me that it's wrong to think this means there is some kind of uniform world culture."

"When you're in the States and you're a writer and you've got money and you walk into a bank, you're a bum with money."