I do believe that books can change lives and give people this kind of language they wouldn't have had otherwise.

I think that happens for a lot of people, they have this idea that there's only one type of way to write poetry and that you have to have this information. You have to know about meter, you have to know about form, you have to know about iambic pentameter, and all of that.

Even with all of its changing, Brooklyn's architecture still feels like home, the language feels like home. It's changing so quickly that it's surprising. It's surprising still, when someone looks kind of askance to see me walking towards them.

I'm always wondering if he'll return. Sometimes I pray that he doesn't. And sometimes I hope he will. I wish on falling stars and eyelashes. Absence isn't solid the way death is. It's fluid, like language. And it hurts so much...so, so much.

When I'm writing flawed characters, I just think about my own flaws.

I think people are sometime reluctant to read outside of their own race. This is heartbreaking.

You can't always be pushing people away. Someday nobody'll come back.