Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.

I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people. It's strange that the only time the major press talks about them is when someone gets killed or does drugs or something; yet these are the same press people who made heroes out of the Mafia and other crooks, you know.

The future is in good hands.

I just think she was a wonderful woman. What I think of when I think of Nina [Simone] is someone that I could relate to, who didn't want anything from me, that could relate to me because I didn't want anything from her. It was nice.

You do what you can with what you have. You have to work the edges whatever they are. The main thing is keeping your integrity.

It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.

In law school they teach you that everything is a contract; well, in poetry everything is a narrative.