Krauze has written many popular history books and political criticism, produced various television documentaries, become embroiled in countless polemics, addressed all the urgent issues facing Mexico and the world and, without ever holding public office—a circumstance that sets him apart from his predecessors, is that he has portrayed a significant influence on Mexican public life. Early in his career, he collaborated with author Octavio Paz the Nobel Prize winner, in the magazine Vuelta. He served as deputy editor (1977–1981) and deputy director (1981–1986).
Krauze has received many awards such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, which is a grant given to people who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts, as well as many others and more recently in 2008, he received the Orden Isabel la Católica given by the Spanish government which is a Spanish civil order granted in recognition of services that benefit the country.
My Definiton of Success | I never think about an abstract result but only concrete achievement: to complete each one of the projects that I envision.
I am Driven By | A desire to make the world that surrounds me a little more understandable in words.
My Highlights | In my life, my connections with my sons, accompanying them along the development of their lives. In my career, to interpret the history of Mexico with an emphasis on biography.
Difference Between Good and Great |To know, as Alfred Hitchcock said, that a week has seven days, not five.
A Key Talent | Rationally but also beyond reason: to tend to my work without haste and without pause, to have a clear idea of priorities, and to fall in love irrationally with a theme, an idea, a cause, a project.
The Characteristics Of Success | The old formula: a healthy mind and a healthy body. I’ve swum daily for forty years, like a form of immersion in myself, and to emerge then with greater clarity from the water of life.
Principles I Live By | Moral rectitude, a belief in the kind of truth that can be verified empirically, tolerance toward those who do not think as I do, the capacity to listen, a faith in freedom.
Critical Skills I Develop | To apply the greatest concentration possible to each issue, and not to confuse the practical life with the contemplative life.
How I Use My Mind | To apply the greatest concentration possible to each issue, and not to confuse the practical life with the contemplative life.
Lessons I Have Learnt | Although we live surrounded by irrationality, injustice, violence, insecurity and fear, I believe in the capacity for understanding.
Dealing With Doubt |To have a loyal friend nearby who can guide and criticize your direction.
Performing At My Peak | I have never been at my peak, nor has anyone been. It’s an unreachable summit.
Resources I Use To Stay Inspired | The music of Bach and Brahms, the essays of Orwell, the stories of Borges, the moral philosophy of Spinoza.
My Future Dreams And Ambitions | Love in all its variants, between couples, between fathers and sons, and “the intellectual Love of God” which is how Spinoza defines knowledge.
The Meaning of Life | Love in all its variants, between couples, between fathers and sons, and “the intellectual Love of God” which is how Spinoza defines knowledge.
The Best Advice I’ve Received | “The best thing you can do when you are sad is to learn something.” A statement from a film I saw in my childhood.
Advice On Building Wealth |Don’t dedicate yourself to literature or publishing or history.
I Am Inspired By | Historians, editor, Mexican essayist Daniel Cosío Villegas, who founded cultural institutions, directed reviews, wrote history and essays.
The Legacy I Would Like To Leave | A more just Mexico, socially and ethically.
