One isn't born with courage. One develops it by doing small courageous things.

I'm a spring leaf trembling in anticipation.

Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now.

Look for the beauty in things.

Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?

I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they're telling the truth. The fact is they're using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they're telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.