Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.

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

My work is a part of me and I know it. I have no reason to try to pick one part of me out from the rest. I only see my work, or rather I should say I see my work only telling my part of the human experience.

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

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.

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.

Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.