People often think of Haiti as a place where you're not supposed to have any joy. I wanted to show that this is a place with joy. Edwidge Danticat More Quotes by Edwidge Danticat More Quotes From Edwidge Danticat We've had fiction from the time of cave drawings. I think fiction, storytelling, and narrative in general will always exist in some form. Edwidge Danticat drawingfictionthinking 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? Edwidge Danticat careersmeanbook I'm not saying Cubans don't deserve asylum, but if it is a national security issue, there are people who are coming from Cuba on hijacked airplanes. Why isn't that a national security issue? Edwidge Danticat airplaneissuespeople I very much love a physical book myself. I think people who have had this experience of also seeing a book come together, from sitting down and writing the first word, to holding the binding in your hand, we have a deeper sentimental attachment to it than others might. Edwidge Danticat writingbookthinking I love the process of cracking the spine for the first time and slowly sinking into a book. That will soon seem old-fashioned, I'm sure, like the time of illuminated manuscripts. Edwidge Danticat processbookfirsts There is something human about the way people react to and identify with suffering. There's a lot more empathy in the world than we perhaps realize. Edwidge Danticat empathysufferingpeople I'm just melancholy by nature, and a lot of that gets into my writing. Edwidge Danticat melancholywriting America's relationship with Haiti has always been very complicated. I often say to people, "Before we came to America, America came to us in the form of the American occupation from 1915 to 1934." Edwidge Danticat haitiamericapeople I was able to not fold and go in a corner because I had my writing as therapy, but also as my tool for struggle. Edwidge Danticat toolsstrugglewriting I think it's hard to write a book about happiness because fiction requires tension and complication. Edwidge Danticat writingbookthinking ...women, brave as stars at dawn Edwidge Danticat starsdawnbrave There is always a place where, if you listen closely in the night, you will hear a mother telling a story and at the end of the tale, she will ask you this question: 'Ou libéré?' Are you free, my daughter?" My grandmother quickly pressed her fingers over my lips. Now," she said, "you will know how to answer. Edwidge Danticat daughtermothernight People aren't really aware of what's happening in other places. Edwidge Danticat happeningspeople It is the calm and silent waters that drown you. Edwidge Danticat calmsilentwater All anyone can hope for is just a tiny bit of love, like a drop in a cup if you can get it, or a waterfall, a flood, if you can get that too. Edwidge Danticat tinywaterfallscups Or even the state of Florida, where they are prepared to execute children. Umm, well, you hope that at least that there is something there to be claimed. Edwidge Danticat floridastateschildren And the fact that Haiti was occupied for 19 years by the United States, from 1915 to 1934. Edwidge Danticat haitiunited-statesyears Especially moments when things are very difficult and complicated for me and I am still trying to grasp what is happening and I am still trying to understand and to reach family back home. Edwidge Danticat complicatedhometrying In Haiti you had the Duvaliers for 29 years and they were very well supported by the United States. Edwidge Danticat haitiunited-statesyears In terms of the idea of long-term occupation - I have been reading a little bit more about this period - and you can see in that occupation are many lessons for the current occupation of Iraq. So we have these connections that go way back that people aren't aware of. Edwidge Danticat iraqreadingideas
