If the Soviet Union can give up the Brezhnev Doctrine for the Sinatra Doctrine, the United States can give up the James Monroe Doctrine for the Marilyn Monroe Doctrine: Let's all go to bed wearing the perfume we like best. Carlos Fuentes More Quotes by Carlos Fuentes More Quotes From 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 blacklatinamerica Death is the great Maecenas, Death is the great angel of writing. You must write because you are not going to live any more. Carlos Fuentes angelwriting Memory is satisfied desire. Carlos Fuentes satisfieddesirememories I have two children who died before reaching 30, so who am I to complain about being alive? Carlos Fuentes complainingtwochildren Here among my books, my wife, my friends and my loves, I have plenty of reasons to keep living. Carlos Fuentes wifereasonbook Robinson Crusoe, the first capitalist hero, is a self-made man who accepts objective reality and then fashions it to his needs through the work ethic, common sense, resilience, technology, and, if need be, racism and imperialism. Carlos Fuentes fashiontechnologyhero I started my own magazine with drawings, commentary, news, film reviews and drawings. Carlos Fuentes magazinesnewsdrawing The new world economic order is not an exercise in philanthropy, but in enlightened self-interest for everyone concerned. Carlos Fuentes selfexerciseorder I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them. Carlos Fuentes readingbookthinking I use a lot of film images, analogies, and imagination. Carlos Fuentes analogiesimaginationuse Most writers in Mexico have had posts as ambassadors, secretaries - that is no longer the case. Now a writer can live off writing. He has an audience: there are publishing houses, there are newspapers - so the situation is not as terrible as it used to be when there were no means and he had to go into government service, be an ambassador or a cabinet minister, etc. So, things are changing in the sense that the civil society is now the protagonist. The writer therefore occupies a different position, but no less influential than in the past, in a new, democratic society. Carlos Fuentes writingmeanpast Mexico is a very complex, mysterious country. I will never understand it fully, and that's why I write so much about it, in order to try to understand it. Carlos Fuentes writingtryingcountry The United States still thinks that Mexico is a nineteenth century industrial society. It isn't that any longer, it has to adapt to a new reality. But we have a grave responsibility in Mexico, which is to give work to our own people. As long as we have a system that denies work to 50 percent of the population, you'll have immigrants coming to the United States. Carlos Fuentes responsibilityrealitythinking Things have changed in Latin America now. We mostly have democratic governments in Latin America, so the position of the writer has changed. It is not as Neruda used to say, that a Latin American writer walks around with the body of his people on his back. Now, we have citizens, we have public means of expression, political parties, congress, unions. So, the writer's position has changed, we now consider ourselves to be citizens - not spokespeople for everybody - but citizens that participate in the political and social process of the country. Carlos Fuentes partylatincountry Migration is an opportunity, not a problem. And in the sense that it is an opportunity, it goes on to a bilateral agreement, between Mexico and the US, the US and the Dominican Republic, whatever you wish, and it has to be a multilateral, international event. I am in favor of an international union of migrant workers that really takes on the problems that affect Europe, with the migrants coming from Africa, and the US with the migrants coming from Latin America. It has to be considered an international question, with international solutions, and with no problems national or international. Carlos Fuentes wishlatinopportunity Anything would be better in the US than what you have. As a government it's really very low quality, given the fact that this country produces eminent intellectuals, has great universities, and then the people who arrive in government are very mediocre. The Latin American situation has been very different in the first place, because writers have spoken for those who have no voice. The rate of illiteracy, poverty, joblessness in Latin America has been so great throughout our history that if the writers didn't speak out for the people, nobody would. Carlos Fuentes latincountrypeople Now the masses of Latin America are electing governments they feel can take forward the democratic reforms of the last 20 years, and transform them into social and economic reforms. This is, I think, extremely important, because it also means that the left has abandoned the revolutionary solution proposed by Che Guevara and has taken the democratic path. Carlos Fuentes takenlatinmean To read and write is a paradise. Carlos Fuentes paradisewriting Contrary to the macho culture of Mexico, both my grandmothers were very brave young widows. I was always very close to these hard-working, intelligent women. Carlos Fuentes grandmotherhard-workintelligent There are people whose external reality is generous because it is transparent, because you can read everything, accept everything, understand everything about them: people who carry their own sun with them. Carlos Fuentes sunrealitypeople
