Carlos Fuentes

The language of Mexicans springs from abysmal extremes of power and impotence, domination and resentment.

The French equate intelligence with rational discourse, the Russians with intense soul-searching. For the Mexican, intelligence is inseparable from maliciousness.

Children know how to be cruel, and the cruelty of their elders is the surest residue of the malaise the young feel toward things strange, things other, things that reveal our own ignorance or insufficiency.

Reading, writing, teaching, learning, are all activities aimed at introducing civilizations to each other.

What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others.

Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.

One wants to tell a story, like Scheherazade, in order not to die. It’s one of the oldest urges of mankind. It’s a way of stalling death.