As a child I wanted to be a professional athlete or lawyer.

There is a crisis involving reading in certain communities.

But now, like a fallen sparrow On a golden chain, I'm forever bound in shadow, A prisoner to my pain.

I am very much interested in getting parents to read to children, and trying to get people mentoring children. If I can do both I'll be happy.

What some people wanted was sometimes too hard to get, and the stress of trying was sometimes too hard to deal with... Maybe doing well in life was just too hard for some people.

It is this language of values which I hope to bring to my books. . . . I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . . guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and indeed are.

I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott.