We don’t even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival...

I write to understand my circumstances, to sort out the confusion of reality, to exorcise my demons. But most of all, I write because I love it!

One of the things that always comes up in my writing is the search for freedom, especially in women. I always write about women who are marginalized, who have no means or resources and somehow...

If you write nonfiction, a historical account of what really happened, first of all, it’s always white men who do that, and you don’t have the voices that are really interesting to me, of the...

[D]ie Leute [lesen] nichts, was sie nicht interessiert, und wenn sie etwas interessier[t], [sind] sie auch reif dafür.

At times I feel as if I had lived all this before and that I have already written these very words, but I know it was not I: it was another woman, who kept her...

I have seen these persons speak unthinkingly, not realizing that to speak is also to be. Word and gesture are man’s thought. We should not speak without reason.

I confess that I am a messy, disorganized and impatient reader: if the book doesn’t grab me in the first 40 pages, I abandon it. I have piles of half-read books waiting for me to...

I was a political refugee living in Venezuela. I had a job that was twelve hours a day, no money. It was a hard time.

At five I was already a feminist, and nobody used the word in Chile yet.

The media could do a much better job, that’s for sure, especially the media that targets women… Human rights? They couldn’t care less!

La vida se hace caminando sin mapa y no hay forma de volver atrás.

Literary characters, like my grandmother’s apparitions, are fragile beings, easily frightened; they must be treated with care so they will feel comfortable in my pages

I’d realized that in writing happiness is useless-without suffering there is no story.

I read on my iPad when I travel. I listen to audiobooks in the car. I read books in my bedroom, where I have a comfortable couch, a lamp and two dogs to keep me...

In times of conflict, war, poverty or religious fundamentalism, women and children are the first and most numerous victims. Women need all their courage today.

Today’s girls are tomorrow’s women – and leaders.

You couldn’t find two people more different than my mother and I. There are a thousand things about me that she fought against.

He said that knowledge was of little use without wisdom, and that there was no wisdom without spirituality, and that true spirituality always included service to others. As he explained many times, the essence of...

I am happier when I love than when I am loved. I adore my husband, my son, my grandchildren, my mother, my dog, and frankly, I don’t know if they even like me. But who...

The pain of losing my child was a cleansing experience. I had to throw overboard all excess baggage and keep only what is essential.

The fact that I am a writer comes from the experience of being cut away from my roots and living in Venezuela, where I couldn’t find a place for myself, for years and years.

In the books I have written, I have created in my mind a universe. My kids say I have a village in my head and I live in that village, and it’s true. When I...

Jamie aveva orrore di qualsiasi forma di estremismo e sosteneva che i guerriglieri si giustificano solo durante la tirannia, quando non c’è altra scelta che battersi con le armi, ma che sono un’aberrazione in un...

You can’t find someone who doesn’t want to be found.

Seated by her side in the narrow cabin, pressing cold compresses to her forehead and holding her while she vomited, he felt profoundly happy….

On a Tuesday, September 11th, 1973, we had the military coup in Chile that forced me to leave my country eventually. And then, on a Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, we had the terrorist attack in...

My desk is like a ‘U,’ so I have my computer and lots of dictionaries because I write in Spanish and I live in English.

Eros is very close to death. And both things, in a way, balance each other.

I was a lousy journalist. I could never be objective. Sometimes I invented the whole story.

Esa noche creí que había perdido para siempre la capacidad de enamorarme, que nunca más podría reírme ni perseguir una ilusión. Pero nunca más es mucho tiempo.

Mediante la fotografía y la palabra escrita intento desesperadamente vencer la condición fugaz de mi existencia, atrapar los momentos antes de que se desvanezcan, despejar la confusión de mi pasado.

…she did not believe that the world was a vale of tears but rather a joke that God had played and that it was idiotic to take it seriously if He himself never had.

I was such a sullen, angry, sad kid. I’m sure there are writers who have had happy childhoods, but what are you going to write about? No ghosts, no fear. I’m very happy that I...

I have a foot here and a foot in some spirit world. There are many more layers to reality, and that permeates my life and my writing in a very natural way. I don’t even...

Give, give, give – what is the point of having experience, knowledge or talent if I don’t give it away? Of having stories if I don’t tell them to others? Of having wealth if I...

I’m a writer. In Latin America, they say I’m a Latin-American writer because I also write in Spanish and my books are translated, but I am an American citizen and my books are published here,...

Nations should be governed by a council of learned men who must answer to the people for their actions.

What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse.

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.

There’s basically an element of fiction in everything you remember. Imagination and memory are almost the same brain processes. When I write fiction, I know that I’m using a bunch of lies that I’ve made...

In the United States, the fact that you can start again gives a lot of energy and strength and youth to this country. That is why it’s so powerful in many ways, and so creative.

But I don’t want more things than I need, either.

How many times have I told you not to believe everything you hear? Seek truth for yourself.

But why give a man something it’s so hard to earn? In that respect women are really thick. They’re the daughters of rigidity. They need a man to feel secure but they don’t realize that...

Roots are not in landscape or a country, or a people, they are inside you.

The poorest and most backward societies are always those that put women down.

I speak English and Spanish. I write in Spanish; my books are published in English.

Unfortunately for my family, they have a writer in the family.

El exiliado mira hacia el pasado, lamiéndose las heridas; el inmigrantemira hacia el futuro, dispuesto a aprovechar las oportunidades a su alcance.