My father never liked me or my sister, and he never liked our mother either, after an initial infatuation, and in fact, he never liked anyone at all after an hour or two, no, no one except a stooge.

As I grow older, the idea takes increasing hold in me that we've misunderstood our own delicacy and diversity as human beings.

The difference between 'lighght' and another type of poem with more words is that it doesn't have a reading process. Even a five-word poem has a beginning, middle, and end. A one-word poem doesn't. You can see it all at once. It's instant.

You're isolated as a writer, so I always envied people who could get up early and drive to work and fit into society.

I've remained in touch with more than a dozen descendants of Gremlin Special survivors, victims, and rescuers. I treasured my friendship with Earl Walter Jr., the lead paratrooper who jumped into the valley to protect the survivors.

I see so many people living in a bubble. They want to be safe, they want their kids to be safe, and they want their friends to be safe. And I get that. That's awesome and really admirable. But life is not about who gets out the cleanest at the end, or who's the most well-preserved and healthiest.

I think most people, when they think about the Black Panther Party, they think in very abstract, caricatured terms. They think about black fists in the air, but they don't think about the actual people, and the families, and the relationships.

Why do people stay in relationships that are tough from almost the very beginning?