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.

Language is such a powerful thing. After the earthquake, I went to Haiti and people were talking about how [they] described this feeling of going through an earthquake. People really didn't have the vocabulary - before we had hurricanes. I'd talk with people and they'd say, "We have to name it; it has to have a name."

People are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us. People will believe anything.

There is a frustration too, that at moments when there's not a coup, when there are not people in the streets, that the country disappears from people's consciousness.

When you are working on something, you have to believe that people will still be reading when you're done!

To be able to create you have to have peace of mind on some level.

You learned in school that you have pencils and paper only because the trees gave themselves in unconditional sacrifice.