"What appealed to me regarding Thoutmès, as well as Aristide, was his effort to challenge fate. People always thought that Haitian Blacks had no access to political power, that they could not voice their opinion in the government of their country. For once, a president, Aristide, came to power and said, "Fok sa changé!" "This must change!"...Aristide does not interest me at all as an individual. But he also represents this: a fragile little man who comes with a revolutionary discourse. He loses and has to go into exile, but he doesn't acknowledge defeat. He tries in vain to come back.... This is a symbol that appeals to me in a literary sense."