It's not easy to start over in a new place,' he said. 'Exile is not for everyone. Someone has to stay behind, to receive the letters and greet family members when they come back.

We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some form.

People think that there is a country there that these people are only around when they are on CNN. I don't think that's limited to Haiti.

Once you're involved in the work, it's really just you and the characters and the words.

I'm just melancholy by nature, and a lot of that gets into my writing.

Sometimes family members will ask to be kept out of certain things that I'm writing, and I try to respect that. I'd much rather have relatives than a book.

We all have a tendency to over generalize our individual experiences. After I've published something, I'll meet someone who says, "I'm Haitian, and I don't know this, so it must not be true." Even if we're talking about a work of fiction. I've gotten very angry myself reading many things about Haiti. We're not a monolithic group; no group is. Also, it's important to keep in mind the genre in which we are writing. Fiction is full of invented stories about exceptional people in exceptional situations. Those situations are not always cheery or celebratory.