Edwidge Danticat quotes - page 2

On some level, now, we are joining the larger world and realizing that we are connected with people in these very scary ways, sometimes. What happened recently in Spain affects us here and brings questions up. It is too bad that people have to be shaken up in that way. (Edwidge Danticat)
When you write, it's like braiding your hair. Taking a handful of coarse unruly strands and attempting to bring then unity. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
In some of the earlier work, I liked to keep readers guessing: one story asked a question, and another resolved it. For the stories I'm working on now-both the new ones and the older ones I'm revisiting-I want to wring everything out. That way, I don't have to write separate stories for every character who surprises me. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
Along with plot, I am always thinking about structure. Sometimes the story guides you to the best structure for its telling. Using letters seemed like the best way to tell this story. When writing these letters, the characters are selecting what they want to tell. In this case, the woman is writing in a way that would not endanger her or her family if her letters were found by the military authorities who took over the country, and the man is writing with the urgency of someone who could die at any minute while at sea. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
That's whatever news topic, whatever political process any country is going through - whenever they are in the news, that's when they exist. If you don't see them they don't exist. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
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. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
I think Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when It's at its extreme. And that's what they end up knowing about it. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
Well, I think that when I'm writing about Haiti, I'm just writing one long, ongoing story. But I really did feel, like a lot of people did, that after the earthquake, there were suddenly two Haitis: the Haiti of before the earthquake and the Haiti of after the earthquake. So I feel that I've been writing about the first one much longer. And writing about the earthquake... it's been such a short period of time and it's still such a raw experience that the few things that I've written about it, I feel like I've written them to process it myself. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
For the majority of the people it is a difficult place to live. That's a reality that we can't ignore. But there is also great beauty to it. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
I wanted to raise the voice of a lot of the people that I knew growing up, and this was, for the most part, poor people who had extraordinary dreams but also very amazing obstacles. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
Also, people are not often aware of the way the United States' policies influence what happens in places like Haiti or El Salvador or Nicaragua. Or in Columbia right now. (Edwidge Danticat)
I think daily that the country's future is being thrown to the wind. View quote
Edwidge Danticat
Loving Haiti, you know, comes in the blood. And loving America, being grateful for what it's afforded my family, there are so many Americans now in my family. That's what also makes it sad to see what's happening now, in terms of how new immigrants are being scapegoated, to hear about children who could have been myself, dying at the border for lack of medical care... View quote
Edwidge Danticat