For a country is not merely a piece of earth; it is, above all, a compendium of social, cultural, and historical factors which begin to acquire sense and order through the process of writing.

Paisajes de guerra: Sarajevo Argelia Palestina Chechenia (2001). After her death he is noted as saying their once shared Paris apartment had become like a tomb. Carajicomedia (2000).

He lives in a voluntary self-exile in Marrakech. Juan Goytisolo (born 6 January 1931 in Barcelona) is a Spanish poet essayist and novelist.