We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some form.

It is the calm and silent waters that drown you.

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 best moment in writing any book is when you just can't wait to get back to the writing, when you can't wait to re-enter that fictional place, when your fictional town feels even more real than the town where you actually live.

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.

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.