I remember, when I was young, to have a literary or artistic vocation was really dramatic because you were so isolated from the common world. You felt that you were marginal, and if you dared to try to organise your life around your vocation, you knew you'd be completely segregated.

The Nobel prize is a fairytale for a week and a nightmare for a year. You can't imagine the pressure to give interviews, to go to book fairs.

In fiction, you are not limited by real facts. You can manipulate reality; you can invent without being disloyal to the essence of history.

Mario Vargas Llosa Quotes