It really wasn't until I was in college when I began to write more and more, and I realized I was scheduling my entire life around my writing

As an African-American, as a woman I think that I've been sensitized to the way in which history privileges the white male and the way in which certain aspects of history, the things that we are taught in school, the things that are handed down never, never entered the picture though they might have been very important.

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

I wish someone had told me that my stories are really mine to tell. In other words, anything that I think is important or that has moved me has the ability to move somebody else.

I think if you put something in a file that says "war poems" or "love poems" that you already restrict the way in which the poem might move.

At the very beginning when I begin writing a poem I try not to think of the audience or anyone at all except for trying to get at the very center of what is driving that poem. In a way it's like analyzing myself.

I see a resurgence of interest in poetry. I am less optimistic about the prospects for the arts when it comes to federal funding.