Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.

Those in the margins are always trying to get to the center, and those at the center, frequently in the name of tradition, are trying to keep the margins at a distance.

Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.

I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.

You know, real artists, we expose our flaws. We long for intimacy.

Hope is when you look out the window and you go, 'It doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond what I see to give people visions of what could be.'

I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment they they have to be more creative than they would have imagined in order to communicate. It's the very moment that they have to dig deeper than the surface to find words, and at the same time, it's a moment when they want to communicate very badly. They're digging deep and projecting out at the same time.