SOURCE: "Worlds Within: An Interview with Caryl Phillips," in Callaloo, Vol. 14, No. 3, Summer, 1991, pp. 578-606.

In the following excerpt from an interview conducted in St. Kitts, West Indies, Phillips speaks to his identity as a writer, relates various literary and cultural influences in his work, and discusses his writing process.

[Bell:] When did you start to allow yourself to be introduced as a writer? Was it at the point of your first sale or while you were actually in the middle of some work?

[Phillips:] I still don't like to be introduced as a writer.

Really? Why is that?

Well … I think it takes a long time to earn the title. A lot of people are interested in being called writers, but not a lot of people are interested in writing. So to me I am very wary about that title. I think it is sort of debased...