I am very timid about speaking for the collective. I can say what I see, I can say what I've heard, I can say what I feel, but I can't speak for - no one can speak for - 10 million people, and it takes away something from them if you make yourself their voice.

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.

The greatest gift anyone can give to a writer is time.

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

In terms of the idea of long-term occupation - I have been reading a little bit more about this period - and you can see in that occupation are many lessons for the current occupation of Iraq. So we have these connections that go way back that people aren't aware of.

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."

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.