Some colored people so scared of whitefolks they claim to love the cotton gin.

You don't really stay attached to things. Life goes on, so you don't really sit around and think about how they are relevant to other people. You hope that whatever you create will be [relevant].

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.

Any God I ever found in church, I brought in myself.

Abortion, for many women, is more than an experience of suffering beyond anything most men will ever know, it is an act of mercy, and an act of self-defense.

Writing poems is my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the evening before.

Artists are messengers whose responsibility is to unite the world -- a faith that will lead not to destruction but to transformation.