After writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right information, it feels like gold.

The best moment in writing any book is when you just can't wait to get back to the writing, when you can't wait to re-enter that fictional place, when your fictional town feels even more real than the town where you actually live.

Toni Cade Bambara said: “Writing is the way I participate in the struggle.”

I think novels just really show us the deepest parts of people's hearts, and you cannot walk away anymore and say, "I don't know."

People aren't really aware of what's happening in other places.

I would hate for people to generalize about every Haitian from something that one Haitian did, or a group of Haitians did.

When you write ,it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity.