SOURCE: “The Imaginary Worlds of Manuel Puig,” in Américas, Vol. 38, No. 3, May-June, 1986, pp. 2-7.

In the following interview, Puig discusses the movie adaptation of his novel Kiss of the Spider Woman and his work as both a screenwriter and a novelist.

Manuel Puig has been recognized as one of Latin America's leading novelists since 1968, when Betrayed by Rita Hayworth was published. Puig's seven novels deal with a wide range of themes and take place in a variety of locations—a small town in the Argentine pampas, great metropolises such as Buenos Aires, Mexico, New York. His most recent novels are Eternal Curse on the Reader of These Pages, written in English during a long stay in the United States, and Blood of Requited Love, fruit of his residence in Rio de Janeiro. Besides his novels, he has written two plays. At the end of last year, Puig...