I can't stay engaged for years with a book unless it has feelings. It can't be an idea for me - it has to be a felt thing.

People seem very comfortable having a kind of Cheesecake Factory-type of life.

Whenever I went to an historical moment that was sad or where something terrible happened, it was, for me, a learning moment, a teaching moment for those who survived.

I usually feel something before I know it.

If you're just mired in privilege, there's nothing to learn; learning appears to be over.

Bruce Lee, before he fought, he would try to visualize how the fight would go, because he was visualizing a victorious path out of the combat.

Because I write intuitively and image-by-image and moment-by-moment, my writing has to be powered by feelings and emotions.

Much of the visualizing is imaginative.

People were always hungry, bullied, afraid, paranoid - so I just thought I'd show that in the novel in a kind of suffocating way.

Magical realism as a declaration in the text is usually when someone can't speak and then they must be magically reinvigorated in some way.

I think poetry can lead to policy, and I can hear the laughter when I say that.

When the whole world is against you and all you know seems lost. Know that God is right there standing at your side ready to catch you and put you back on your own two feet again.

Because our power is motivating, and gives momentum and ownership of changes to those who dream of failure.

My head’s swimming. Sorry, sis. I’m a useless brother. You’re best off shot of me. - Burt

I swear I have at least one good song idea a day. But if I don't get pen to paper in ten seconds, it's gone forever.

Greatness is helping others realize they are great, beautiful and capable. Genius is seeing the wonder and possibility in those others ignore.

Physics, beware of metaphysics.

Men's minds tend to fear more keenly those things that are absent.

We live in a country where there is a lot of animosity. If your politics is radical it antagonises. People might think I am overconfident. I look petulant when I stand my ground.

The creative core of New York has never been native New Yorkers; it's people from all over the world.

I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.