Language is always the companion of Empire and Empire. . . Is one Monarch and one Sword.

— Carlos Fuentes

Like all of Latin America, Mexico after independence in 1821 turned its back on a triple heritage: on the Spanish heritage, because we were newly liberated colonies, and on our Indian and black heritages, because we considered them backward and barbaric. We looked towards France, England and the U.S., to become progressive democratic republics.

— Carlos Fuentes

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

— Carlos Fuentes

…my books are derived from city images, and the city of my dreams or nightmares is Mexico City. (The Art of Fiction, No. 68. The Paris Review, No. 82, Winter 1981.)

— Carlos Fuentes

Nor is the limitation of what is payable a limit to the doable: this last is the possibility of literature.

— Carlos Fuentes

Normality; show me normality, señor caballero, and I will show you an exception to the abnormal order of the universe; show me a normal event and I shall call it miraculous because it is normal.

— Carlos Fuentes

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

— Carlos Fuentes

Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.

— Carlos Fuentes

Power does not alter a man's character. It merely reveals it.

— Carlos Fuentes

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

— Carlos Fuentes