It's exciting to consider how art, in its ability to reveal, can be ahead of the artist.

I couldn't write about love without writing about hate - specifically, how the experience of hatred embeds itself in the body and prevents love from entering or leaving.

I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.

Now is not the time for Canadians to be sanctimonious. It is time for us to be prudent and active.

Children's books have great potential to reveal new possibilities to readers, because the intended audience is at an age of genuine learning.

In poetry, I didn't have to provide resolution. I could ask hard questions without feeling responsible for the answers.

As a person of color, I know race can't be stripped from admiration or preference.

I have dedicated a significant portion of my time and artistry to making art that addresses various forms of oppression, including white supremacy, misogyny, and biphobia.

I do use art as a site of protest, particularly in relation to dominant narratives.

I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written, especially in relation to gender.

When I was writing, I wanted every word to be not only deliberate, but musical. Precious.

Most sentimental ideas imply, at bottom, a deep if unacknowledged disrespect.

A strong determined spirit is unstoppable.

... it was with an unusual intensity of pleasure, a pleasure destined to have a lasting effect upon his character and conduct...

What do we care, if the world is a joke? We'll give it a big kiss, we'll give it a poke. Death wears a big hat cause he's a big bloke.

I want to go outside and play.

Jazz is an art form that depends on its antecedents, there must be respect for the people that have gone before.

I was kind of lost for several years.

I come from a really lovely, really smart family where the only stress was money and employment.

It is neither the statesman nor the friend who is asking your help and assistance, but simply the man.

The team that makes the most mistakes usually wins.