Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back holds up.

You get to the point where your demons, which are terrifying, get smaller and smaller and you get bigger and bigger.

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

I may be personable, but I assure you I am a lion.

I am not a historian. I happen to think that the content of my mother's life - her myths, her superstitions, her prayers, the contents of her pantry, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter - are all worthy of art.

I first got involved in theater in 1968, at the height of a social tumult. I was a poet.

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