Don't be so fast, you're all you've got.

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

A good poem is like a bouillon cube. It's concentrated and it nourishes you when you need it.

I have a high guilt quotient. A poem can go through as many as 50 or 60 drafts. It can take from a day to two years - or longer.

The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.

Being Poet Laureate made me realize I was capable of a larger voice. There is a more public utterance I can make as a poet.

I loved to write when I was a child. I wrote, but I always thought it was something that you did as a child, then you put away childish things.