I was not interested in doing the plot of Oedipus in blackface. I did wonder, what would these people have been like if they hadn't been in that situation?... One could look at Oedipus, or at my character Augustus, as a cynical schemer who did everything because he was hungry for power. But that's just too easy. I'm more interested in how humans can embody conflicting goals and emotions.

In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things

I carry a notebook with me everywhere. But that's only the first step.

I think children have talent and insight, but it gets beaten out of them.

I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem.

I didn't know writers could be real live people, because I never knew any writers.

If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.