The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Mother's life flowed radiant. Flourescent-tipped waves on incoming tides.

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.

I have great respect for the past.

Courage, I don't think anybody is born with courage. I think you may be born with a flair to braggadocio, you know. That's not courage.

To know and not to do is in fact not to know. We need to be active instruments against evil. We need to do.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs... I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.