“When I was young, I was older than I am today.”

“I was pirouette and flourish,I was filigree and flame.How could I count my blessingswhen I didn't know their names?”

“If our children are unable to voice what they mean, no one will know how they feel. If they can’t imagine a different world, they are stumbling through a darkness made all the more sinister by its lack of reference points. For a young person growing up in America’s alienated neighborhoods, there can be no greater empowerment than to dare to speak from the heart — and then to discover that one is not alone in ones feelings.”

“From the time I began to read, as a child, I loved to feel their heft in my hand and the warm spot caused by their intimate weight in my lap; I loved the crisp whisper of a page turning, the musky odor of old paper and the sharp inky whiff of new pages. Leather bindings sent me into ecstasy. I even loved to gaze at a closed book and daydream about the possibilities inside.”

“If you can't be free, be a mystery.”

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”

“If you cannot be free, be a mystery.”