Maybe that is the power of poetry. It somehow transcends news cycles, and becomes a part of our collective imagination. That is the beauty of the art form I like to play with.

I am most interested in people. I try to capture their complexity and contradiction and beauty. It does not matter where they are from.

This poet is a griot in search of a village.

When people open up and share their stories, you have a responsibility to tell these truths truthfully and with the same quest for grace and beauty that you see in them.

All memory is fiction.

I believe that all fiction is personal and all writing is at some level personal.

Latino poets, are really having a significant impact on American poetics today.

My concern is always that I can do justice to what I see and hear.

The aesthetic, as I understand it, is really about the way in which we understand beauty and speak and think about beauty.

Racist writing is a craft failure.

Our goal is to publish African poets in as many ways as possible.

When you stop doing what insults your Soul, your Journey accelerates and your Life beings to fill with joy.

All roads lead to success. Yours...or someone else's.

Some [young people] are taking pills called “heaven or hell” drugs, because you’re liable to experience either one.

Christ is pre-requisite for "Church".

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

In a lot of cases, as in Tom and Nicole's case, the tabloids were about to break the story, so they said just let the news out. And they called organizations such as ours.

For many, whether they go to prison or not is far less about the choices they make and far more about what kind of cage they're born into.

How lucky can one guy get? I was a runaway, and then I was in one of the biggest bands in the world. I've sold out every arena. I've sold millions and millions of records.

See everything. Ignore a lot. Improve a little.

I feel like I have things to say. And that's what I'm looking forward to.