After writing fiction for so long, I like the discovery element of nonfiction, in the sense that when you find the right information, it feels like gold.
Edwidge DanticatPeople are just too hopeful, and sometimes hope is the biggest weapon of all to use against us. People will believe anything.
Edwidge DanticatIt seemed from the media that we were being told that all Haitians had AIDS. At the time, I had just come from Haiti. I was twelve years old, and the building I was living in had primarily Haitians. A lot of people got fired from their jobs. At school, sometimes in gym class, we'd be separated because teachers were worried about what would happen if we bled. So there was really this intense discrimination.
Edwidge DanticatPeople think that there is a country there that these people are only around when they are on CNN. I don't think that's limited to Haiti.
Edwidge DanticatSometimes we mask ourselves to further reveal ourselves, and it's always been connected to me with being a writer: We tell lies to tell a greater truth. The story is a mask; the characters you create are masks. That appeals to me. Aside from that, too, in the carnival the masks were beautiful, and offered a vision of Haitian creativity.
Edwidge Danticat