What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how ordinary people live their lives

I always want to write something better than the last book.

If you had an essentially happy childhood, that tends to dwell with you.

God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us

How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: "Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant... God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.

You can write about anything, and if you write well enough, even the reader with no intrinsic interest in the subject will become involved.

When I select a topic, it's usually a commitment of two to three years of my life