The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.

Whining is not only graceless, but it can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighborhood.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn't be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it empowers us to develop courage; to trust that courage and build bridges with it; to trust those bridges and cross over them so we can attempt to reach each other.

I think all poems are commissioned. They just come to me without somebody outside commissioning them. The idea comes and I will live with them 'til I get it as close to what I mean. I've never been totally satisfied. I've come close a few times.

The area where we are the greatest is the area in which we inspire, encourage and connect with another human being.

There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.