Author Garcia Marquez breaks silence, says he was busy writing

"Out of fear of not having enough time to finish the three volumes of my memoirs and two books of short stories, I reduced my contacts with friends to a minimum, disconnected the telephone ... and locked myself up to write from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day," the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" told the Argentinian newspaper La Nacion.

His lymphoma is now in remission, a positive development that has given him additional energy for his writing, Garcia Marquez said.

The Colombian native living in Mexico City also showed in the interview that he has not lost his sense of humour.

When asked if he wrote a message that appeared this year on the Internet saying he was near death and wanted to die, the 73-year-old said, "I would die of shame if someone thought I had written something so tasteless."

(klei/dpa)