I grew up in Ohio, where civil-rights accomplishments had already begun to accelerate before Martin Luther King appeared. In hindsight, we know that many people, black and white, were instrumental in changing the Jim Crow status quo on all levels.

In fact, sometimes traveling the world is a way of not writing a poem, but it's the quality of experience. It's being able to experience something and when you begin to write about it be able to apply the tools that you need for writing.

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 that when a poem can move readers across generations and across its specific class or race then it becomes truly classic.

I was pirouette and flourish, I was filigree and flame. How could I count my blessings when I didn't know their names?

If they don't read, if they don't love reading; if they don't find themselves compulsively reading, I don't think they're really a writer

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.