The joy of poetry is that it will wait for you. Novels don't wait for you. Characters change. But poetry will wait. I think it's the greatest art.

The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the 'Negro's' reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images.

I probably have not killed anyone in America because I write, I've maintained good controls over myself by writing.

I cannot tell the truth about anything unless I confess being a student, growing and learning something new every day. The more I learn, the clearer my view of the world becomes.

What I'm trying to do is to tell young people that I teach them how to breathe before I teach the haiku. That one breath, that one breath, because the haiku keeps you alive. It keeps you going. If you learn how to breath the haiku, you learn how to breathe. If you learn how to breathe, you're much healthier.

Art... reacts to or reflects the culture it springs from.

Poetry is subconscious conversation, it is as much the work of those who understand it and those who make it.