Equality and self-determination should never be divided in the name of religious or ideological fervor.

You have to imagine it possible before you can see something. You can have the evidence right in front of you, but if you can't imagine something that has never existed before, it's impossible.

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

The American Dream is a phrase we'll have to wrestle with all of our lives. It means a lot of things to different people. I think we're redefining it now

I've always felt that the poems I've written which have historical context are hopefully not just simply plucking something out of history and saying great, let's write about that. In every case what has happened is that I've become fascinated or haunted by something and couldn't shake it.

Listen how they say your name. If they can't say that right, there's no way they're going to know how to treat you proper, neither.

What writing does is to reveal.