A lot is yet to be enjoyed. I'd like to stomp grapes for wine. Go to Antarctica. Have dinner with Venus Williams who is the greatest tennis player ever.

Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.

I am of the generation of segregation. Black Lives Matter is post. I said today, and I will say all the time, "If Nina [Simone] were here, she'd have her Black Lives Matter [T-shirt] on." I think they're great kids. They don't need me or anybody else to tell them what to do.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.

I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not do.

Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important to pay attention. It keeps you from being bored, and I might add it keeps you from being boorish.