Come windless invader I am a carnival of Stars, a poem of blood.

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.

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

I still hear you humming, Mama. The colour of your song calls me home. The colour of your words saying, Let her be. She got a right to be different. She gonna stumble on herself one of these days. Just let the child be. And I be, Mama.

The most fundamental truth to be told in any art form, as far as Blacks are concerned, is that America is killing us.

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.

I shall become, I shall become a collector of me. And put meat on my soul.