65 Quotes by Daniel Alarcón

I think probably the thing I’m worst at is the most ephemeral stuff, like blogs. I find it really hard to write. And I’m often been asked to write columns for papers in Peru. And I can’t. I would die. There’s no way I could write a column.

I think I’m an American writer writing about Latin America, and I’m a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.

A novel is like an animal you have to hunt down and kill. If you let it sit for two days, it’s got a two-day head start. So, if I just look at it every day, I’m so much better off.

Generally, I find that when you’re writing and having fun with the writing, that energy and dynamism is going to come out in the text one way or another.

When I started writing seriously in high school, English was the language I had at my disposal – my Spanish was domestic, colloquial, and not particularly literary or sophisticated.

I began visiting Lima’s prisons back in 2007, when my first novel, ‘Lost City Radio,’ was published in Peru.

I’m a believer in the benefits of translation. It’s a necessity and a privilege – it would be awful to be limited to reading authors who’s work was composed in the languages I happen to have learned.

Peru is a country where more than half the people would emigrate if given the chance. That's half the population that is willing to abandon everything they know for the uncertainty of a life in a foreign land, in another language.

It's true that there are people who live the idea of being an artist, as opposed to the idea of making art.