We live inside our parents' backstory.

Lately, I'd been feeling like I was standing outside watching everything and everybody. Wishing I could take the part of me that was over there and the part of me that was over here and push them together—make myself into one whole person like everybody else.

Racism doesn't know color, death doesn't know age, and pain doesn't know might.

I feel like so much of what I'm doing is making a road where there is no road and inviting people on that road with me. It's scary. It's scary, but I can't listen to the voices that are saying form is the only way, or that there is only this kind of form or that kind of form.

I've learned about marrying poetry and prose and making both accessible.

Mama says it's okay to be on the quiet side—if quiet means you're listening, watching, taking it all in.

Sometimes...you have to try to forget people you love just so you can keep living.