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.

Be careful what you swallow. Chew!

I've always thought of myself as a reporter.

The forties and fifties were years of high poet-incense; the language-flowers were thickly sweet. Those flowers whined and begged white folks to pick them, to find them lovable. Then the '60s: Independent fire!

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.

Don't let anyone call you a minority if you're black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You're not less than anybody else.

The poetry is myself.