I had been an abject fan of Robert Stone since the early eighties, when I borrowed a copy of ‘A Flag for Sunrise’ to read on a plane to Rome. I was twenty-something, with a first novel under my belt. Madison Smartt Bell Read Quote
I had a house in Haiti, in the hills above the North Atlantic coast. The house appeared as if out of a dream: my dream to have a foothold in the country. Like many concepts do in Haiti, the phrase ‘pied a terre’ became literal, material. Madison Smartt Bell Read Quote
One can’t do anything alone in Haiti. Sharing and cooperation are so deeply woven into the culture that sometimes it’s hard to have a separate thought. Madison Smartt Bell Read Quote
The country is too often assumed to be a backward place: The First World has trouble remembering that Haitians were two centuries ahead of us in abolishing slavery and in extending full rights of citizenship to everyone, regardless of race. Madison Smartt Bell Read Quote
