I am writing this book in order to learn (or relearn) how one writes about death, so I can write, or continue to write, about the deaths that have most touched my life, including, most recently, my mother's.
-- Danticat (chapter 1 paragraph 3)

Importance: Here, Danticat outlines her goal in writing The Art of Death. She specifies that through writing The Art of Death, she hopes to "learn" and "relearn" how to understand deaths in her life. Thus, Danticat aligns herself with the reader, who also hopes to "learn" about death through reading Danticat's book. In this way, Danticat establishes the tone of her book: The Art of Death is not a didactic guide to writing; rather, it is a collaborative attempt to understand death and its impact on the human person.

The act of writing, or talking about one's death, makes one an active participant in one's life. Those who write, or make cassettes, about...
-- Danticat (chapter 2 paragraph 2)