I kept going back while I was writing the novel - which never sold, may it rest in peace - and by the time it was finished I had too many connections to Haiti to walk away.

I realized I was never going to have any peace with myself unless I made an honest stab at trying to write.

Late bloomer' is another way of saying 'slow learner.

If you want to write, then write; if you don't want to write, then don't write. I fell into the former category, and I just made the decision that I'd keep on because I liked it and might someday do something decent.

Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

I quit law in 1988 to start writing, and it took me 17 years from that point to get a book contract. I guess you can say I was on the slow train.

By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world.