“I've always felt my role in life was to be a mentor. If I can do that with a younger generation, that's my goal.” Quote by Sutan Amrull
“I just want to keep feeding people and letting them have little tidbits. I'm not sure what that is exactly, but I have a lot of great ideas. I just move organically in my life, and it's always worked.” PeopleMovingNot SureGreat Idea Author:Sutan Amrull
“We have this atomic idea of process where we want to believe that the creator of the book or the show had this whole brainy idea at the outset. As though there is something less about it if it comes out of the process of discovery.” BelieveBook Author:Steve Toltz
“I suppose I could read more fiction, but I haven't moved in that direction. I'd like more time even though I spend six hours a day reading. People say their eyes get tired, but I've never experienced that. In college I used to read 10 hours a day. My wife says I'm obsessive compulsive. She might have a point because when I was an undergrad student we had the required reading list and the suggested reading list. I always read all the suggested reading too.” PeopleEyeReadingHoursWifeStudentsCollegeMovedTiredMy WifeObsessive Author:Mark Helprin
“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.” PeopleDifferentCountrySpeakQualitySituationPovertyRateLatinMediocreLatin AmericaIlliteracy Author:Carlos Fuentes
“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.” PeopleMeanCountryPoliticalPartyChangedDemocraticLatinPolitical PartiesLatin AmericaThings Have ChangedAmerican Writer Author:Carlos Fuentes
“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.” WritingMeanDifferentPastHouseSituationAudienceTerribleDemocraticPublishingSecretaryInfluentialCivil Society Author:Carlos Fuentes
“I have never considered myself a writer in exile because I grew up outside of my own country, because my father was a diplomat. Therefore, I grew up in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, the United States, I studied in Switzerland - so I've always had perspective on my country - I am thankful for that.” CountryFatherPerspectiveExileI Am Thankful Author:Carlos Fuentes
“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.” WritingTryingCountryMysterious Author:Carlos Fuentes
“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.” PeopleThinkingGivingLongRealityResponsibility Author:Carlos Fuentes
“When we have a better, more social, more responsible, less egotistical, less corrupt system, Mexico will be able to give work to the millions of Mexicans who have to build our roads, dams, schools, all the things that are left undone in Mexico while we have the manpower. There is something very bad going on, on both sides of the border in Mexico and the US. But the worker is a worker, not a criminal. So, I am in favor of a solution such as the Kennedy-McCain proposals that make it clear what steps have to be taken to accept the fact that the US needs foreign workers.” GivingSchoolAcceptingTakenSolutionsResponsibleProposalEgotistical Author:Carlos Fuentes