Latest Edwidge Danticat Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• There is this split between the Haiti of before the earthquake and the Haiti of after the earthquake. So when I'm writing anything set in Haiti now, whether fiction or nonfiction, always in the back of my mind is how people, including some of my own family members, have been affected not just by history and by the present but also by the earthquake.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Writing, People, Mind

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Salt is a powerful symbol in Haiti, as elsewhere. Salt of the earth, for example is an American phrase. In Haiti, myth and legend has it that if you are turned into a zombie, if someone gives you a taste of salt, then you can come back to life. And in the life of the fishermen, there are so many little things about salt that I wanted to incorporate. The salt in the air. The crackling of salt in the fire. There's all this damage, this peeling of the fishing boats from the sea salt. But there is also healing from it, sea baths that are supposed to heal all kinds of aches and wounds.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Powerful, Healing, Giving

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Sometimes family members will ask to be kept out of certain things that I'm writing, and I try to respect that. I'd much rather have relatives than a book.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Book, Writing, Trying

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I can't wait for both my daughters to be old enough to read all my books. I loved it every time I saw my parents acting like more than just my parents. And I'm looking forward to that with my daughters too. I am looking forward to having them discover me as someone completely other than their mother.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Daughter, Mother, Book

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• It's not a matter of whether the reviews of your books are good or bad, it's about being taken seriously, both as a woman writer and as a writer of color. Also, it worries me when people point to a couple of women writers or writers of color who get some attention - and I am sometimes pulled into that category - to prove that others are getting a fair shot. It's like those people who keep saying that racism no longer exists in this country because Barack Obama was a President of the United States.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Country, Couple, Book

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• We all have a tendency to over generalize our individual experiences. After I've published something, I'll meet someone who says, "I'm Haitian, and I don't know this, so it must not be true." Even if we're talking about a work of fiction. I've gotten very angry myself reading many things about Haiti. We're not a monolithic group; no group is. Also, it's important to keep in mind the genre in which we are writing. Fiction is full of invented stories about exceptional people in exceptional situations. Those situations are not always cheery or celebratory.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Reading, Writing, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• The best moment in writing any book is when you just can't wait to get back to the writing, when you can't wait to re-enter that fictional place, when your fictional town feels even more real than the town where you actually live.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Real, Book, Writing

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Often when you're an immigrant writing in English, people think it's primarily a commercial choice. But for many of us, it's a choice that rises out of the circumstances of our lives. These are the tools I have at my disposal, based on my experiences. It's a constant debate, not just in my community but in other communities as well. Where do you belong? You're kind of one of us, but you now write in a different language.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I think it's hard for an outsider to capture the flavor of a community and all its nuances, so ultimately Haitian-Americans need to start sharing intimate accounts of their stories.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Thinking, Community, Nuance

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• I hope to be a good role model for my daughters.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Daughter, Role Models, Roles

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• 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

  People, Empathy, Suffering

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• I think it's hard to write a book about happiness because fiction requires tension and complication.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• The greatest gift anyone can give to a writer is time.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Giving, Greatest Gifts

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• I'm just melancholy by nature, and a lot of that gets into my writing.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Writing, Melancholy

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• The more practice you have, the less stressful writing is.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Writing, Practice, Stressful

  Interview with Kam Williams, www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com.

• Once you're involved in the work, it's really just you and the characters and the words.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Character, Working It, Involved

  "Edwidge Danticat: The “Create Dangerously” Interview". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. November 23, 2010.

• 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

  Thinking, People, Joy

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• I think we all wear some kind of mask. There are masks that shield us from others, but there are masks that embolden us, and you see that in carnival. The shiest child puts on a mask and can do anything and be anybody.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Children, Thinking, Shields

  Interview with David Barsamia, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• Sometimes we mask ourselves to further reveal ourselves, and it's always been connected to me with being a writer: We tell lies to tell a greater truth. The story is a mask; the characters you create are masks. That appeals to me. Aside from that, too, in the carnival the masks were beautiful, and offered a vision of Haitian creativity.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Beautiful, Lying, Creativity

  Interview David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• When I meet people for the first time, I always put on my glasses because I feel like that's a little something extra between me and them. It's like the Laurence Dunbar poem "We Wear the Mask."

  Edwidge Danticat

  Glasses, People, Littles

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• Even when I think of writing fiction, it's being kind of a liar, a storyteller, a weaver, and there's that sense of how much of this is your life. The story is a way you unravel your life from behind a mask.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Liars, Writing, Thinking

  Interview David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• Being a shy child, I always longed for a mask. Even in my adult life, I have glasses, they are my mask.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Children, Glasses, Adults

  Interview David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• After the Dance was my first attempt at nonfiction. I'd never really participated in carnival, and I really wanted to go. It sounded like a wonderfully fun thing to do. And I wanted to write something happy about Haiti, something celebratory. And going to carnival gave me a chance to do that, because it is one of the instances in Haiti when people shed their class separation and come together.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Fun, Writing, Class

  Interview David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• Whole interaction between the storyteller and the listeners had a very powerful influence on me.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Powerful, Influence, Storyteller

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.

• Life's hard in Haiti right now. And the hardest thing is that the future does not lie with one person.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Lying, Doe, Haiti

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. October 1, 2003.