I can't control life for my grandchildren, so how could I control a story? Sometimes I try to force something, and after working and working on... →
Isabel Allende
I have a foot here and a foot in some spirit world. There are many more layers to reality, and that permeates my life and my writing in a very... →
I have been a foreigner all my life, first as a daughter of diplomats, then as a political refugee and now as an immigrant in the U.S. I have had to... →
My father left when I was three, and I have no memory of him. The most significant male figures in my life were my grandfather, in whose house I... →
The first lie of fiction is that the author gives some order to the chaos of life: chronological order, or whatever order the author chooses.
The fact that you own a gun and shoot to defend your life is a very American way of thinking.
I rebelled against all form of authority, against my grandfather, my step-father, the Church, the police, the government, the bosses. Everything male... →
The longest, most solid and complex relationship in my life is with my mother. It started before I was born, and now, when I am 71 and living in... →
I've been a story-teller all my life but I realized it only recently.
Everything I write has to be connected to my life. One of the things that always comes up in my writing is the search for freedom, especially in... →