I have spent many years trying to recover a common language, one that can cross the distance between people.

Adolescents are in just as much trouble in Native America as they are in the white community.

Be careful how quickly you give away your fire.

One man wrote me, saying, 'You know who you are? You're nothing but a Captain Bly pissing up a drainpipe!'

What I am trying to do is bring people into grief in relation to the society we have.

One out of three black men are in the criminal justice system in some form. Their despair is beginning to resonate through the entire culture; that is why suburban children want rap music.

Sociological prose can tell you everything, but it can't point out the grief.