To believe is to become what you believe.

As I am a poet I express what I believe, and I fight against whatever I oppose, in poetry.

Good poetry and successful revolution change our lives. And you cannot compose a good poem or wage a revolution without changing consciousness unless you attack the language that you share with your enemies and invent a language that you share with your allies.

We do not deride the fears of prospering white America. A nation of violence and private property has every reason to dread the violated and the deprived.

To tell the truth is to become beautiful.

The neglected legacy of the Sixties is just this: unabashed moral certitude, and the purity -- the incredibly outgoing energy -- of righteous rage.

There are two ways to worry words. One is hoping for the greatest possible beauty in what is created. The other is to tell the truth.