"One of the real gifts of the inauguration was realizing that my story, my mother’s story, the immigrant story, the ga…"

"I make reference in my writing to many of the Afro-Cuban deities and superstitions that migrated into Catholicism in …"

"What’s more, I realized that I had an artistic duty and an emotional right to speak to, for, and about millions like …"

"I really didn't end up coming out until much later in life ... and what really fascinated me as a writer and as an in…"

"Revise, revise, revise—a poem is never done. That’s the mantra ingrained in most of us. While, of course, I do believ…"

"In poetry, my grandmother is much more vicious and hurtful…In the book, she comes across as this likable character. A…"

"I want to turn metrophobes (people with a fear of poetry) into metromaniacs. I think the fear goes back to the way po…"

"For the most part, I don’t know where a poem will lead, but I’ll have a sense of the theme or texture to start with. …"

"Raised in a working-class, immigrant family, I didn’t have access to poetry. I want to write poetry that my mother ca…"

"Aye, think! Since time and life began, Your mind has only feared and slept; Of all the beasts they called you man Onl…"