“The most powerful words you can learn to use? I Don't Know.”

“If you don't read, I don't know how to communicate with you...I can never express who I am in my own words as powerfully as my books can.”

“I am, by calling, a dealer in words; and words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

“It's up to the artist to use language that can be understood, not hide it in some private code. Most of these jokers don't even want to use language you and I know or can learn . . . they would rather sneer at us and be smug, because we 'fail' to see what they are driving at. If indeed they are driving at anything--obscurity is usually the refuge of incompetence.”

“Words are power. The more words you know and can recognize, use, define, understand, the more power you will have as a human being... The more language you know, the more likely it is that no one can get over on you."selection from book: Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community”