Speculation is a fool's game, but I've seen many political projections that look like the Taliban could hold most of the country, and possibly Kabul, within perhaps a short time.

You can't be wrong in journalism. Take a wrong turn in journalism, and you are writing fiction. You can take a wrong turn in poetry, and something wonderful can happen.

Poetry allows me to write about what I don't know, whereas journalism demands a higher level of certainty to be worthy of being written.

In most of the world, poetry has such a different reputation than it does in Western culture.

News isn't designed to talk about daily life in its nuances, but poetry is.

Islam doesn't have a monopoly on violence in Africa. And violence plays a particularly critical role in places where statehood is weak at best, such as the Maghreb.

The power of the voice in rap is about the expression of truth, rather than the expression of some kind of artifice.