I think it's hard to write a book about happiness because fiction requires tension and complication.

I think we all wear some kind of mask. There are masks that shield us from others, but there are masks that embolden us, and you see that in carnival. The shiest child puts on a mask and can do anything and be anybody.

There is this split between the Haiti of before the earthquake and the Haiti of after the earthquake. So when I'm writing anything set in Haiti now, whether fiction or nonfiction, always in the back of my mind is how people, including some of my own family members, have been affected not just by history and by the present but also by the earthquake.

They say behind mountains are more mountains.

I think it's hard to write a book about happiness because fiction requires tension and complication.

We live now in a global culture where anything that happens in a place that's 90 minutes from your shores really affects you.

I think it's hard for an outsider to capture the flavor of a community and all its nuances, so ultimately Haitian-Americans need to start sharing intimate accounts of their stories.