There [Haiti] were also leaders like Jean-Jacques Dessalines, whose motto was, "Cut their heads off, burn their houses."

I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves. I look up at the sky and I see you there.

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

Even when I think of writing fiction, it's being kind of a liar, a storyteller, a weaver, and there's that sense of how much of this is your life. The story is a way you unravel your life from behind a mask.

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

I was able to not fold and go in a corner because I had my writing as therapy, but also as my tool for struggle.

In Haiti you had the Duvaliers for 29 years and they were very well supported by the United States.