But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.

I am honest; I try to be truthful. I like people and wish us well. We are not always deserving of our own best wishes.

I had a really nice childhood; I had great parents. I earned my allowance by washing dishes, and in the summer I earned my allowance by working in daddy's garden.

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.

We [Black people] have always used our creativity to battle and we're not the only ones. Black Americans are certainly leaders in that simply because we were denied education and dealt with enforced illiteracy. But people seem to always forget that literacy is not the only way of learning things or conveying knowledge.

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