“I don't like a kind of workshop that is about editing--I don't want to sit there and be an editor. I don't want to tell someone how to "fix" a poem.”

“Growing up, my birthday was always Confederate Memorial Day. It helped to create this profound sense of awareness about the Civil War and the 100 years between the Civil War and the civil rights mo...”

“I think there is a poem out there for everyone, to be an entrance into the poetry and a relationship with it.”

“The experience of poetry could bring my mother back to me. Poetry offers a different kind of solace - here on earth.”

“I want to be the best advocate and promoter for poetry that I can be.”

“From the catbird seat, I've found poetry to be the necessary utterance it has always been in America.”

“Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said."Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.”

“I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don...”

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

“Not everyone may not think the way you do.”

“I think you're wrong.""Think what you like.”

“To think, to think, even with a split second left - to think was the only hope.”

“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

“The worst kind of oppression is when the victims think and talk in the language of their oppressors.”

“A random act of kindness, no matter how small, can make a tremendous impact on someone else's life.”