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.

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

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

To practice your scales, so to speak, in order play the symphony, is what you have to do as a young poet.

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

I think reading Shakespeare's plays when I was young was extremely important. He had the ability to make utter strangers come alive.

From the time I began to read, as a child, I loved to feel their heft in my hand and the warm spot caused by their intimate weight in my lap; I loved the crisp whisper of a page turning, the musky odor of old paper and the sharp inky whiff of new pages. Leather bindings sent me into ecstasy. I even loved to gaze at a closed book and daydream about the possibilities inside.