If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.

If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.

[To write poems] I think it's important to do research, and research mostly is going to come from books, so all of your reading is potentially helpful to your poetry.

Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.

I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.

And like an unfaithful mate, once a car has let you down you never sort of trust it again.

I spend a lot of time learning about bird watching.