There are some very powerful contributions to knowledge in the scientific world or the legal world, but art is singular. That's why every dictator gets rid of the artists first. They burn the books and execute the artists first. Then they get on with whatever else they're interested in. Art might do something. It's dangerous.

All art is knowing when to stop.

One has to work very carefully with what is in between the words. What is not said. Which is measure, which is rhythm and so on. So, it is what you don't write that frequently gives what you do write its power.

Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

I don't think I knew any of my father's friends - male friends - by their real names. I remember them only by their nicknames.

It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you.

Black women are the touchstone by which all that is human can be measured.