Back in those early days when I began my apprenticeship as a poet, I also tried to voice our anger, spirit of defiance and resistance in a Jamaican poetic idiom.

Writing was a political act and poetry was a cultural weapon.

The more I read my poems, the more I find out about them. I still read them with the same passion I felt when I wrote them as a young man.

Once you have a disease like cancer, you look at life a bit differently. Some things that were important no longer seem as important as they were.

I have never, ever sought validation from the arbiters of British poetic taste.

At the end of the day, life's about realising one's human potential. I don't know if I've realised mine, but I've certainly gone a long way towards realising some goals and some dreams.

I don't go to see bands any more because I've got tinnitus, so I have to avoid loud music. You get used to it, but when it's quiet you hear a constant ringing.

I do love irony. It’s so…complicated and coincidental.

She flew like a bird, only faster.

The ultimate truth is penultimately a falsehood.

Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims.

Eight generations of African-Americans are still waiting to achieve their rights - compensation and restitution for the hundreds of years during which they were bought and sold on the market.

Don't go overboard with too many accessories and too many different things.

Be aware that the difference between heaven and earth is not so much altitude but attitude.

The nature of war is constant change.

Good humor is one of the preservatives of our peace and tranquility.

Heaven - the treasury of everlasting life.