As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasn't made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different.

I do feel fortunate to have some knowledge of the great Latin American writers, including some that are probably not that well known in English. I'm thinking of Jose Maria Arguedas, whom I read when I was living in Lima, and who really impacted the way I viewed my country.

It's true that there are people who live the idea of being an artist, as opposed to the idea of making art.

Peru is a country where more than half the people would emigrate if given the chance. That's half the population that is willing to abandon everything they know for the uncertainty of a life in a foreign land, in another language.

I’m a believer in the benefits of translation. It’s a necessity and a privilege – it would be awful to be limited to reading authors who’s work was composed in the languages I happen to have learned.

I began visiting Lima’s prisons back in 2007, when my first novel, ‘Lost City Radio,’ was published in Peru.

When I started writing seriously in high school, English was the language I had at my disposal – my Spanish was domestic, colloquial, and not particularly literary or sophisticated.

Generally, I find that when you’re writing and having fun with the writing, that energy and dynamism is going to come out in the text one way or another.

A novel is like an animal you have to hunt down and kill. If you let it sit for two days, it’s got a two-day head start. So, if I just look at it every day, I’m so much better off.

I think I’m an American writer writing about Latin America, and I’m a Latin American writer who happens to write in English.