I try to show what it is about language and music that enthralls, because I think those are the two elements of poetry.

I always loved science. And in fact, I got a science award in high school. I mean, I loved science, but I think I loved literature more.

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.

My childhood library was small enough not to be intimidating. And yet I felt the whole world was contained in those two rooms. I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom.

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.

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.

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.