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.

We should always do something that makes us feel like a child again. Keep learning, no matter what it is.

I think that you certainly don't have to be aged and travel the world to write a poem.

Nothing is too small. Nothing is too, quote-unquote, ordinary or insignificant. Those are the things that make up the measure of our days, and they're the things that sustain us. And they're the things that certainly can become worthy of poetry.

If you can't be free, be a mystery.

My father is a chemist, my mother was a homemaker. My parents instilled in us the feeling that learning was the most exciting thing that could happen to you, and it never ends.

All of us have moments in our childhood where we come alive for the first time. And we go back to those moments and think, This is when I became myself.