What I’m fighting for now in my work… for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.

Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.

Look at what’s happening in this world. Every day there’s something exciting or disturbing to write about. With all that’s going on, how could I stop?

When you love a man, he becomes more than a body. His physical limbs expand, and his outline recedes, vanishes. He is rich and sweet and right. He is part of the world, the atmosphere, the blue sky and the blue water.

We are each other’s magnitude and bond.

I’ve always thought of myself as a reporter.

A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies. And be it gash or gold it will not come Again in this identical guise.

Don’t let anyone call you a minority if you’re black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You’re not less than anybody else.

When you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you’re telling them that they’re less than somebody else.

Art hurts. Art urges voyages – and it is easier to stay at home.

What I’m fighting for now in my work… for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.

Poetry is life distilled.

First fight. Then fiddle.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.

I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.