I work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and I have to satisfy myself as an artist. So I always say that I write for the same people that Picasso painted for. I think he painted for himself.

Suffice it to say, I'm not poor.

My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.

Have a belief in yourself that is bigger than anyone's disbelief.

I dont write particularly to effect social change. I believe writing can do that, but thats not why I write.

As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say . . . as long as he looks to white folks for approval . . . then he ain't never gonna find out who he is and what he's about.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.