It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.

You have the mainstream bourgeois life of the U.S., Europe, the "developed" world - the life of technology, education, mortgages, careers, a certain level of physical comfort - while on the other hand, several billion people on the planet exist on less than a dollar a day. That's a huge and terrible reality to get your head around.

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.

I think if you spend much time dwelling on influence you can get self-conscious about every line you write. That's a great way to freeze up.

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.

Americans are incredibly polite as long as they get what they want.

It took me 10 years to write a story that pleased me - that I could look at after it was published and not cringe.