Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.
Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.
Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.
Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.
Baseball is already the world’s most tranquil sport. It is probably the only active sport where you are not seriously required to be alive to play.
But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.
Rage is to writers what water is to fish.
We are less lonely when we connect. Art is connection.
God knows it’s a sign of a really sick mind to see grown people, adults with responsibilities, wearing class rings.
We are better than we think and not yet what we want to be.
All systems require myths for their longevity.
I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.
You’re only as good as your last book.
If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.
The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.
For most of my life, I’ve thought of myself as pretty cool.
We believe ‘Peter Rabbit’ because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to.
VISIBILITY – You’ve got to find a way to make people know you’re there.
I appreciate my my sleep In sleep my conversation is witty My home is dusted My office work is up to date The dog is even well behaved And food is on the table on time But then when I’m asleep I don’t have you to clutter and confuse My hungry heart.
You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you’ll never write.