Orwell says somewhere that no one ever writes the real story of their life. The real story of a life is the story of its humiliations.

I was always a reader. In the fifth grade, I got some sort of prize for having read hundreds of books from the library.

The sun does what it does because the earth tilts.

Society imposes an identity on you because of the way you look. Your struggle as a self has to do with an identity being imposed on you that you know is not your identity.

You probably have to split yourself in various ways just in order to survive, and to think of yourself as a multitude.

I would say that when I write prose I'm a more socially responsible person. I'm much more a citizen of the world. But the instability of the poetry, the emotional jaggedness, is also me.

You don't think of yourself as your external representation, or even your national origin or anything like that. You don't reduce yourself to that. That's kind of unthinkable.

I resist thinking of myself as a teacher. I think of myself as a writer who has pulled a fast one and hoodwinked this institution into giving me a job and health insurance.

I think that when you reveal things that are going to cause pain, you have rhetorical resources in poetry.

We all think of ourselves as our subjectivity, our consciousness.

It's important for all writers to try to figure out what they're doing.

We both must burn this midnight oil together. You’re just as new to me as I am you.” --Andrew

If you have read 6, 000 books in your lifetime, or even 600, it's probably because at some level you find 'reality' a bit of a disappointment.

A woman who is not happy with herself can never be happy for someone else." -Toyi Ward

Change--savor the cool, fresh flavor of it.

You're arguing that the fragile, rare thing is beautiful simply because it is fragile and rare. But that's a lie, and you know it.

The man I want to be could easily beat me up.

Court, in our society, is often the last resort of stubbornness.

Anyone has the ability, if they choose, to move to the higher end of the state of mind they are in. From that higher end, they can generate another state of mind.

I guess if you keep making the same mistake long enough, it becomes your style.

Speed takes a little bit of getting used to, but rules have to be followed. At any speed, the more you run, the more you get used to it.