44 Quotes by Haitian authors

Rooted in Kreyòl cadence, Haitian sayings carry sun and storm in the same breath. They prize community over bravado, measure wealth in shared labor and laughter, and turn hardship into sly, salt-edged wisdom. Voices of maroons, market women, drummers, and elders braid history with everyday bread, faith threaded with doubt, tenderness with iron resolve. These words walk from the lakou to the shoreline, balancing memory like a calabash on the head: practical, poetic, unafraid to bless, tease, warn, and spark courage for the road ahead.

See the complete list of authors from Haiti

"Someone has said that nations have interests, they don't have friends, and you see that over and over in U.S. policy"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"I think daily that the country's future is being thrown to the wind"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless"

Pras Michel, Musician

"Peace in the head, peace in the stomach"

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Statesman

"Napoleon had been fighting this army of slaves and free people in Haiti, and it depleted his forces. And after the Revolution, when the French were driven out, they stopped and sold this big chunk of North America to the Americans for very little money"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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, Author

"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, Author

"More and more people are able to access information - thank goodness we have the Internet, and if you are interested, you can find things, which is different than even 20 years ago"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"Creating these messes that go from administration to administration and then you swoop in and clean them up - with that heroic Delta Force - people not realizing that they were always there but doing different things than what we see them doing at the moment"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"People who want alternative information have to try so hard to find it"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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, Author

"To start with, for example, this year, 2004, is the bicentennial of Haitian independence"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"On some levels, you can also have this feeling that we are being duped, somehow. And that the world is at play for something you would understand more if it were pure ideology. It is a very strange time and also basic things are being taken away"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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, Author

"People aren't really aware of what's happening in other places"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"In Haiti you had the Duvaliers for 29 years and they were very well supported by the United States"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"In fact, that is the struggle that most Americans - as rich as this country is, most Americans are very limited in their interaction with the world, unless the world comes to us in a very shocking way"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"And the fact that Haiti was occupied for 19 years by the United States, from 1915 to 1934"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"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, Author

"You have all these people in the city and everything has become centralized. If you live outside the city and you need a birth certificate or some official paper from the government, you have to travel to the city"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"People think that there is a country there, that these people are only around when they are on CNN. I don't think that's limited to Haiti"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"There is a frustration too, that at moments when there's not a coup, when there are not people in the streets, that the country disappears from people's consciousness"

Edwidge Danticat, Author

"When we came up with titles like Ready or Not, that's how we really felt"

Pras Michel, Musician

"The record Clef and I did was just sitting there. So I said, Clef, I got a record, hit a verse on it. He just went in, messed around and ended up doing the hook too"

Pras Michel, Musician

"A couple of people thought I looked familiar, but it was like, No"

Pras Michel, Musician

"I really can't blame anyone but myself, because I didn't have to deliver the album. But when you get caught up in the gas, and you're young, and there's so much helium going on around you, you can't decipher the real end"

Pras Michel, Musician

"When I was leaving I kind of felt a little bit sad, because I made some friends down in Skid Row"

Pras Michel, Musician

"For this album I was determined to do it my way. Take my time. I'm gonna win, lose or draw on my own"

Pras Michel, Musician

"I didn't want to do the whole, get the hottest person thing. I wanted to make sure every record felt right"

Pras Michel, Musician

"There's a harsh reality - nothing lasts forever. You have to be ready to grow, and grow fast"

Pras Michel, Musician

"In life we try to grow and better ourselves. As an artist, I feel like I've grown tremendously"

Pras Michel, Musician

"I'm one of those firm believers that good music will prevail"

Pras Michel, Musician

"I'm confident being at Universal, which is a great home for me, 'cause they understand what I'm trying to do"

Pras Michel, Musician

"People in the record business would say, Well, Pras, you know, you haven't been out in a while, maybe you should get today's hottest producer or rapper to do something"

Pras Michel, Musician

"As far as we are concerned, we are ready to leave today, tomorrow, at any time, to join the people of Haiti, to share in their suffering, help rebuild the country, moving from misery to poverty with dignity"

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Statesman

"We have problems which will be addressed by Haitians"

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Statesman

"As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we think of their suffering, we feel deeply and profoundly that we should be there, in Haiti, with them, trying our best to prevent death"

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Statesman

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