He says writing the first paragraph is the most difficult part of writing a novel, and that he would take as much as several hours to write a single paragraph back then. Yet, he effortlessly comes up with sentences that could very well be the beginning of ridiculously beaultiful stories, such as:

"It always amuses me that the biggest praise for my work comes for the imagination, while the truth is that there’s not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality. The problem is that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination."