Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. ... Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.

Toni Cade Bambara said: “Writing is the way I participate in the struggle.”

We try to keep the beautiful memories, but other things from the past creep up on us.

My models were oral, were storytellers. Like my grandmothers and my aunts. It's true, a lot of people in my life were not literate in a formal sense, but they were storytellers. So I had this experience of just watching somebody spin a tale off the top of her head. I loved that.

I'm happy to be part of this chorus of people who are trying to tell more complex stories about Haiti.

I don't know what will happen to the physical book and what it will mean for authors. I worry whether it will mean people can still make their careers this way. Will whatever comes next allow people to be able to own their ideas and be able to take time to develop them?

Here, though, there is nothing. Nothing at all. The sky seems empty even when I am looking at the moon and stars.