I think Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when it’s at its extreme. And that’s what they end up knowing about it.

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

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.

I would hate for people to generalize about every Haitian from something that one Haitian did, or a group of Haitians did.

Napoleon had been fighting this army of slaves and free people in Haiti and it depleted his forces. And after the Revolution, when the French were driven out, they stopped and sold this big chunk of North America to the Americans for very little money.

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.

Whole interaction between the storyteller and the listeners had a very powerful influence on me.