She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves.

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come again in this identical guise.

I am an ordinary human being who is impelled to write poetry. ... I still do feel that a poet has a duty to words, and that words can do wonderful things, and it's too bad to just let them lie there without doing anything with and for them.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.

When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room.

There can be no whiter whiteness than this one: An insurance man's shirt on its morning run.

I've always thought of myself as a reporter. When people ask why I don't stop writing, I say, `Look at what's happening in this world. Every day there's something exciting or disturbing to write about.’ With all that's going on, how could I stop?