Listen How They Say Your

There Are Times In Life When, Instead Of Complaining, You Do Something About Your Complaints.

At The Very Beginning When I Begin Writing A Poem I Try Not To Think Of The Audience Or Anyone At All Except For Trying To Get At The Very Center Of What Is Driving That Poem. In A Way It's Like Analyzing Myself.

I Was Not Interested In Doing The Plot Of Oedipus In Blackface. I Did Wonder, What Would These People Have Been Like If They Hadn't Been In That Situation?... One Could Look At Oedipus, Or At My Character Augustus, As A Cynical Schemer Who Did Everything Because He Was Hungry For Power. But That's Just Too Easy. I'm More Interested In How Humans Can Embody Conflicting Goals And Emotions.

If They Don't Read, If They Don't Love Reading; If They Don't Find Themselves Compulsively Reading, I Don't Think They're Really A Writer

If Our Children Are Unable To Voice What They Mean, No One Will Know How They Feel. If They Can’t Imagine A Different World, They Are Stumbling Through A Darkness Made All The More Sinister By Its Lack Of Reference Points. For A Young Person Growing Up In America’s Alienated Neighborhoods, There Can Be No Greater Empowerment Than To Dare To Speak From The Heart — And Then To Discover That One Is Not Alone In Ones Feelings.