“It was so incredible meeting Lady Gaga. I mean I’m gaga for Gaga, literally. We kind of just each flew to each other like magnets after the ceremony ended and we were both just crying and hugging.”

Whenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head.

One of the most rewarding moments of my career is when I’m speaking to a child who tells me they have the same speech impediment that I had to overcome and that they’re going to keep writing or sharing their voice after hearing my story.

What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.

My mom wanted to make sure I was prepared to grow up with Black skin in America.

I am my own best mirror.

I try to approach reading in front of millions of people as I would reading in somebody’s living room.

Your daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.

Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.

I think we run into issues when our online brands are not rooted in who we are, and I think we need to have explicit discussions with ourselves about who we want to be, what we want to represent, and how we want to express that.

I close my eyes and I am with this army of young women standing in a line and I imagine us walking forward together.

To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece.

The fight isn’t over – it’s just begun. It’s time to suit up for a battle that might determine the war.

I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.

See the line where the sky meets the sea.

Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements for change.

All of a sudden to get all of this attention, and to be away from home and working all the time was hard. I was on planes all the time. I didn’t see my friends. I cried a lot. It was quite terrifying.

I don’t have to live up to that Superwoman myth. I can cry and be human and lean on people who take care of me. That can be very liberating.

Crying for someone you love doesn’t make you a weak person.

A loving relationship is one in which the loved one is free to be himself – to laugh with me, but never at me; to cry with me, but never because of me; to love life, to love himself, to love being loved. Such a relationship is based upon freedom and can never grow in a jealous heart.

I’m an emotional gangster. I cry once every month.

Sometimes, we all laugh for a joke which is not funny and cry for a love not meant to be.

To weep is to make less the depth of grief.

I remember crying in front of the nation.‬ Shedding tears made me feel human, made me feel complete. Tears only make us stronger.