14 Quotes by Gustavo Pérez Firmat

There’s a Cuban saying: Bicho malo nunca muere. Loose translation: The good die young but the wicked live forever. It seems to apply to Fidel. I hope it applies to me.

I say that being a smart writer doesn’t make you a good writer. There’s obviously a difference between talent and intelligence. And it may be that at some point intelligence begins to impinge on talent, or talent on intelligence.

My writing, such as it is, grows out of my sense of discolation, I mean, dislocation. Having lost my place, I write to find my place, or to find once again that I have lost my place.

I read fiction all the time. It’s true that I don’t like fantasy or science fiction. I like “realistic” novels, particularly those in which nothing much ever happens.

For me the path to the literary goes through the non – literary. For this reason it surprises me that I am a writer, or that people speak of me as a writer. I’m flattered, but I don’t quite believe it.