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

... in order to be a true revolutionary, you must understand love. Love, sacrifice, and death.

You can't have relationships with other people until you give birth to yourself.

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.

Zora Neale Hurston said fear is the greatest emotion and I said, 'No my dear sister.' Fear will make us move to save our own skins. Love also makes us save ourselves, but it will make us move to save others as well.

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