“There’s a black man inside of me just trying to make bail.”

I feel very, very grateful. I’m a lucky guy, you need a lot of luck, and then when the cameras roll, you have to have this group of writers, directors, and actors that just gel, and it seems to literally be happening more and more.

I think as any artist you always want to grow; you always want to get better.

I don’t try to knock people out, but I have the ability to press him and get the cheese.

For now, poetry has the capacity – in its own ways and by its own means – to remind us of something we are forbidden to see.

I’m just vibrant. I try to bring that to everything I do.

I am an instrument in the shape/ of a woman trying to translate pulsations/ into images for the relief of the body/ and the reconstruction of the mind.

That’s why I want to speak to you now. To say: no person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone.

The necessity of poetry has to be stated over and over, but only to those who have reason to fear its power.

If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.

It’s been very helpful for my career, but I’m trying to stay on the path I was on before.