If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I'd hear a loud 'A-hem!' from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same.

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.

Had I not had my grandmother, who dared to be my rainbow in the clouds, I would have been just another sexually abused barefoot black girl on the roads of Arkansas,

Then I went back to my mother when I was 13 and she was ready for me.

Listen carefully to what country people call mother wit. In those homely sayings are couched the collective wisdom of generations.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.