I think that if poetry is not a personal act, it's a pamphlet.

I think that all my books are political, I think that I have a political body of work. I am essentially a political woman, but above all I am a poet. I am a poetess.

I think that one of the tasks of feminist women - mainly women of culture - in our time is to seek out those women who were only forgotten because they were women.

Prizes aren't essential. What is essential is poetry itself, it's what is said, it is clarity, it's loyalty, those are the essential values, the literary values.

I think the obligation of a poet is not to be in an ivory tower; it is not to be isolated but to be among people.

Men use women sexually. They use them, mistreat them, even from the point of view of vocabulary, the use of words. It baffles me.

I don't offend anyone, I don't use anyone, I don't exploit anyone.

I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die.

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

God is not ignoring your prayers, He is working behind the scene perfecting all that concerns you, praise Him.

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.

My work is very much like the restaurant critic's - a number of factors come together to make for a strong review.

I still have more to fight for in the coming years.

I don't write with an outline. I don't often know what I'm going to do as I'm writing. And I do everything by feel and by instinct.

You have to promise you won't fall in love with me.

Nothing can make injustice just but mercy.

It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be.