Real Magic
“I was born and raised in the Caribbean. I know it country by country, island by island; maybe my frustration that nothing has ever occurred to me, and that I could never do anything more surprising than reality, springs from there. The furthest I’ve been able to go is to transpose it with poetic resources, but there is not a single line in any of my books that does not have its origin in a real event . . . In short, Latin American and Caribbean writers have to admit, hands on hearts, that reality is a better writer than we are. Our destiny, maybe our glory, is to try to imitate it with humility, and as best we can.”
— Gabriel García Márquez, The Scandal of the Century