We don't ask a flower any special reason for its existence. We just look at it and are able to accept it as being something different from ourselves.

I believe we should all know each other, we human carriers of so many pleasurable differences. To not know is to doubt, to shrink from, sidestep or destroy.

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?

A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

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.

I don't like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.

This is the urgency: Live! and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.