If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.

I'm very fortunate. I'm not much of a self-promoter or anything.

Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

There are things I don't like, like sitting at the head of the class. It makes me uncomfortable. I'll do it in a seminar if I have to, but with a workshop, I try to put myself in the circle somewhere. Because that hopefully frees up some people by making somebody else sit at the nominal head of the table.

Contradictions make people feel off. They'll say, "Hey, you just said this and now this person is doing that, how is that possible?"

My good friend, the poet Kofi Natambu, once said, "Contradiction is how we operate."

It makes me think about how you hear these young people say, "I see you, man." Or even if you go and watch some basketball game over the summer and the announcer goes, "I see you," and you see that player smile. You know what I mean? That thing of just being recognized, especially when you do a little subtle thing. I don't know.