I was reading all these male writers who were doing wild and wonderful things. It gave me permission to experiment.

I learn through listening and watching other performers that are very good, like Denise Chávez, Dorothy Allison.

Something I always tell students is, when you're writing something, you want to write the first draft and you want it to come out easily in the beginning. If you're afraid to say what you really have to say, you stammer. When you're thinking of your listener, that's when you start stuttering and it's just because you're nervous that your listener is passing judgment.

I want to write an essay called "Fear of Mexico," because I always feel like Mexico's this lover that never writes to me.

I've come to some balance now and calmness. If anything happened to me and I got hit by a bus - I hope this doesn't happen, but if something happened - my body of work is something I could rest on. I don't feel, "Oh God, I have to hurry up . . ."

I tell people to write the stories that you're afraid to talk about, the stories you wish you'd forget, because those have the most power. Those are the ones that have the most strength when you give them as a testimony.

Maybe all pain in the world requires poetry.