What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.

I've always thought of myself as a reporter.

Writing is a delicious agony.

Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get.

I tell poets that when a line just floats into your head, don't pay attention 'cause it probably has floated into somebody else's head.

Be yourself. Don't imitate other poets. You are as important as they are.

It is brave to be involved