Toni Cade Bambara Said: “writing Is The

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.

That Has Always Been A Strength Of Haiti: Beyond Crisis, It Has Beautiful Art; It Has Beautiful Music. But People Have Not Heard About Those As Much As They Heard About The Coups And So Forth. I Always Hope That The People Who Read Me Will Want To Learn More About Haiti.

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.

It's Hard To Tell What People Will Do With The Word And How They'll Be Circulating It But I Think The Storytellers And The Stories Themselves Will Always Be There.

In The 1980s, When People Were Just Beginning To Talk About Aids, There Were Just A Few Categories Of Those Who Were At High Risk: Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin Addicts, And Haitians. We Were The Only Ones Identified By Nationality.