What the United States does best is to understand itself. What it does worst is understand others. Carlos Fuentes More Quotes by Carlos Fuentes More Quotes From Carlos Fuentes Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre. Carlos Fuentes genre Art gives life to what history killed. Art gives voice to what history denied, silenced, or persecuted. Art brings truth to the lies of history. Carlos Fuentes voicelyingart Culture consists of connections, not of separations: to specialize is to isolate. Carlos Fuentes separationconnectionsculture The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States. Carlos Fuentes blackwhitewriting Writing is a struggle against silence. Carlos Fuentes strugglebeautifullife Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me. Carlos Fuentes migrationdiversitylike-you I need, therefore I imagine. Carlos Fuentes imaginewritingneeds One wants to tell a story, like Scheherezade, in order not to die. It's one of the oldest urges in mankind. It's a way of stalling death. Carlos Fuentes storieswritingorder No government functions without the grease of corruption. Carlos Fuentes greasecorruptiongovernment In a world torn by every kind of fundamentalism - religious, ethnic, nationalist and tribal - we must grant first place to economic fundamentalism, with its religious conviction that the market, left to its own devices, is capable of resolving all our problems. This faith has its own ayatollahs. Its church is neo-liberalism; its creed is profit; its prayers are for monopolies. Carlos Fuentes churchreligiousprayer I discovered very quickly that criticism is a form of optimism, and that when you are silent about the shortcomings of your society, you're very pessimistic about that society. And it's only when you speak truthfully about it that you show your faith in that society. Carlos Fuentes optimismoptimisticcriticism Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers. Carlos Fuentes opportunitygivinghistory You start by writing to live. You end by writing so as not to die. Carlos Fuentes diesendswriting Reading, writing, teaching, learning, are all activities aimed at introducing civilizations to each other. Carlos Fuentes readingteachingwriting You have an absolute freedom in Mexican writing today in which you dont necessarily have to deal with the Mexican identity. You know why? Because we have an identity... We know who we are. We know what it means to be a Mexican. Carlos Fuentes mexicanwritingmean There is no creation without tradition; the 'new' is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past. Carlos Fuentes variationnoveltypast Religion is dogmatic. Politic is ideological. Reason must be logical, but literature has a privilege of being equivocal. Carlos Fuentes privilegeliteraturereason You, yesterday, did the usual things, just as any day, You don't know if it's worth remembering. You would prefer to remember, there lying in the half-darkness of the bedroom, not what has happened already but what is going to happen. In your half-darkness your eyes would prefer to look ahead, not behind, and they do not know how to foresee the past. Carlos Fuentes eyelyingpast I am a Mexican. The United States lived seventy-five years with the one party system in Mexico - the PRI - without batting an eyelid, never demanding democracy of Mexico. Democracy came because Mexicans fought for democracy and made a democracy out of our history, our possibilities, our perspectives. Democracy is not something that can be exported like Coca-Cola. It has to be bred from the inside, according to the culture, the conditions of each country. Carlos Fuentes perspectivepartycountry Retrospectively, I would agree with Luis Bunuel that sex without sin is like an egg without salt. Carlos Fuentes salteggssex
