Nothing improves your writing, I think, as much as your keeping writing.

We just didn't put any pressure on each other, and I think that everybody needs somebody, and I didn't do it to try to do it; it's what we [with Nina Simone] were to each other.

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.

It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend.

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.

I do not understand why any poet or writer would run for office; that's a different sense of who you are. I'm just a poet. I am as truthful as I can be. That makes me an artist. I heed the people; I do not lead the people.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.