Haiti was founded by African slaves who rose against their European masters, had a revolution, and created a new state. There is no other such event in Western history.

To me, there is nothing more soothing than the song of a mosquito that cant get through the mesh to bite you.

Sometimes you don't get but one mistake, if the one you pick is bad enough.

Edwidge Danticat's prose has a Chekhovian simplicity--an ability to state the most urgent truths in a measured and patiently plain style that gathers a luminous energy as it moves inexorably forward. In this book she makes a strong case that art, for immigrants from countries where human rights and even survival are often in jeopardy, must be a vocation to witness if it is not to be an idle luxury.

Imaginative writing has always been a solitary and indeed a somewhat antisocial activity. Apprenticeship existed, no doubt, but it was an apprenticeship to books and not to living masters of the craft.

I have always had a mystical attitude toward inspiration. Thats my nature.

I dont call myself a very good Christian, but I think I know one when I see one, and I also think I know when I dont.