Poetry gave me back my voice.

If I'm going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don't just go bumbling over things.

A great soul serves everyone all the time. A great soul never dies. It brings us together again and again.

It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

Had I known that the heart breaks slowly, dismantling itself into unrecognizable plots of misery... had I known yet I would have loved you, your brash and insolent beauty, your heavy comedic face and knowledge of sweet delights, but from a distance I would have left you whole and wholly for the delectation of those who wanted more and cared less.

I wish that we could look into each other's faces, in each other's eyes, and see our own selves. I hope that the children have not been so scarred by their upbringing that they only think fear when they see someone else who looks separate from them.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.