I Grew Up In New York, I

After My Mom Died, There Was So Much Written About Her Fashion And Her Style And All That, And I Felt That One Of The Most Important Parts Of Her Was Missing, Her Real Intellectual Curiosity.

I Never Thought I'd Be Doing Poetry Books. I Never Really Studied Poetry. But The First One I Did Was After My Mother Died, And I Realized That People Sort Of Think And Talk About Her Style And Fashion, But In Fact, What Made Her The Person She Was Was Really Her Love Of Reading And Ideas.

I Think One Of My Father's Great Legacies Is The People That He Inspired And The Generation That He Inspired Transformed America Through Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Equal Justice, And They've Passed That On To Their Children And Grandchildren.

I'm Not As Shy As Everybody Makes Me Out To Be.

It Is Not Easy To Stand Up Against Your Constituents Or Your Friends Or Colleagues Or Your Community And Take A Tough Stand For Something You Believe Is Right. Because You Always Want To Keep Working And Live To Fight Another Battle And It Might Cost You Your Career.