The fact that I am a writer comes from the experience of being cut away from my roots and living in Venezuela, where I couldn't find a place for myself, for years and years.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't know if I had ever found my place in the world until I fully committed to being a writer.
I don't think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be.
I began my writing career in a very isolated place and time.
I come from a very small city in a rather remote part of America, where writers simply weren't part of the daily fabric.
What I find curious is that I ever became a writer at all. I grew up in the South Bronx, the land of poverty and petty hoodlums.
In this day and age, you can write anywhere in the world. You can really live anywhere and have the same career.
I've carved out a career for myself really as a writer.
To be a writer you have to be out in the world, you have to risk yourself in the world, you have to be immersed in the world, you have to go out looking for it. This becomes harder as you get older because there's less energy, the days are shorter for older people and it's not so easy to go out and immerse oneself in the world outside.
What makes my work my own is where I'm writing from. And I feel like I have a million stories to write about Chicago.
If you are a writer you're at home, which means you're out of touch. You have to make excuses to get out there and look at how the world is changing.