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

...women, brave as stars at dawn

There is something human about the way people react to and identify with suffering. There's a lot more empathy in the world than we perhaps realize.

AIDS was something that was put upon us [as haitians], and we were immediately identified with it. That is unfair. That is unjust. I always say, "We are all people living with AIDS." It's not like you can avoid it. It's part of our world.

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

It's interesting to see people overcome things. Because if you didn't overcome, you wouldn't be writing it.

Or even the state of Florida, where they are prepared to execute children. Umm, well, you hope that at least that there is something there to be claimed.