Clark writes: "In November 1982, U.S. president Ronald Reagan was taken aback by Colombian president Belisario Betancourt's charge that the United States was consistently denying admission to his country's most prominent citizen. 'But you are welcome to the States at any time,' Reagan responded, to which Betancourt retorted, 'I don't mean myself. I mean Gabriel García Márquez. You and I will both be out of power in a few years; writers like him outlive us all.'"