I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.

It's gut instinct that helps me determine how to write a story. I love the surreal because I am faced with the challenge of making the unbelievable believable. That challenge is thrilling.

Books are often far more than just books.

Good fiction challenges us as much as it entertains and these days, we could do with both of these things.

I am fine with my books being categorized as African-American literature but I hope they are also considered Haitian-American literature and American literature. All of these things are part of who I am and what I write.

I would like to believe that most people, regardless of gender, are good and kind. The good men in my stories are the rule. It's the bad men that are the exception and because I tend toward the dark in my fiction, you see more of the exception than the rule.

Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.