That's whatever news topic, whatever political process any country is going through - whenever they are in the news, that's when they exist. If you don't see them they don't exist.

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 often think of Haiti as a place where you're not supposed to have any joy. I wanted to show that this is a place with joy.

No, women like you don't write. They carve onion sculptures and potato statues. They sit in dark corners and braid their hair in new shapes and twists in order to control the stiffness, the unruliness, the rebelliousness.

The girl she said, I didn’t tell you this because it was a small thing, but little girls, they leave their hearts at home when they walk outside. Hearts are so precious. They don’t want to lose them.

It is the calm and silent waters that drown you.