[My] hunger and thirst was, and still remains: How do I get people who hate poetry to love me?

I would have to say that I’m haunted. I’m haunted by everything that drives me. I want to do great work. I need to do great work. I won’t be satisfied unless I do great work.

I talk to my kids about my mothers energy and how she would have loved them. I talk about how kind and polite my father was. So that they have some kind of remembrance that even though my parents died from their addictions and so that they know they were genuine in how they were.

[My] hunger and thirst was, and still remains: How do I get people who hate poetry to love me?

No one touches me when I write my story, unless I hire you to or I allow you to.

Work controls my life, writing controls my life, performing controls my life.

For the last 15 years that I have been performing, all I ever wanted to do was transcend poetry to the world. See, it wasn't enough for me to write a book. It wasn't enough for me to join a slam competition, and while those things hold weight, it wasn't the driving force that pushes the pen to the pad.