The Fourth of October 1599 was a sunny day in Rome. There’s no evidence that Francisco de Quevedo was in the city on that particular day, but nor is there any evidence that he was anywhere else.
-- Narration (“In A New World And Land”)

Importance: This quotation, which refers to the date of the imagined tennis match between the poet and the artist, establishes the central historical approach of the novel: although many historical facts are included during the course of the narrative, the novel does not seek to provide a factual account of events. Instead, it aims to provide a fictional account based on what the facts imply may have happened or, at the very least, that the facts cannot disprove.

The Conquistador must have been a nice man, despite his unwieldy role as the protagonist of the greatest and most revolutionary epic of his century and possibly of all history.
-- Narration (The Testament of Hernán Cortés)

Importance: The author introduces Hernán Cort...