The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.

The legacy of slavery comes from the sustained political, legal and economic effort to link permanently an entire group of people to poverty - and to mystify that systematic disenfranchisement by making up something called race, which could serve as a distraction.

I don't have any authority to talk about the domestic policies of America. But as an outsider, I am mystified by the fact that you are encouraged to buy a gun, but if you use it for the purpose that it is expressly designed for, you get the death penalty. That aspect of America is kind of mystifying.

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

Always mystify, torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible.

The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar is the test of their power.

I wanted to reimagine the role in a way that was respectful of its traditional responsibilities but made them part of a wider pattern of poetry about national incidents events preoccupations and to spend a great deal of time going to schools trying to demystify poetry.