Great music - say jazz - has that inventive, improvisational quality that tells us something about life. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
When I was ten and in fifth grade, I read all of 'Robinson Crusoe' in one weekend. — Kevin Young Books Copy Share Image
Hip-hop at its zenith insists on thinking and dancing simultaneously. In fact, it sees them as synonymous. — Kevin Young Dancing Copy Share Image
The first rule of influence is that there isn't any. The second rule of influence is that it is everywhere. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
“holding tight / to their pocketbooks / at the pearly gates / just in case.” — Kevin Young Pearly gates Copy Share Image
I rather think that archives exist to keep things safe - but not secret. — Kevin Young Archives Copy Share Image
I think poems return us to that place of mud and dirt and earth, sun and rain. — Kevin Young Dirt Copy Share Image
The willed recovery of what's been lost - often forcibly, I suppose - is what keeps me going. It is this reason… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
For the black author, and even the ex-slave narrator, creativity has often lain with the lie - forging an identity, 'making' one,… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Even Toni Morrison claiming Bill Clinton as 'black' could not prepare us for the election of America's first undeniably black president, Barack… — Kevin Young America Copy Share Image
We've learned quickly that the Web is far more pseudonymous than anonymous: online, our names have simply been changed to a number,… — Kevin Young Anonymous Copy Share Image
I think I go with the Duke Ellington view on music. He said, 'There's two kinds of music - there's good music,… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
“I now know pain is part of any journey- that this is the opposite of grief, but grief the only way I… — Kevin Young Death Copy Share Image
The hoax is the very absence of truth, which usually means art is absent, too - hoaxes regularly substitute claims of reality… — Kevin Young Art Copy Share Image
I'm not a historian. I know historians. I've worked with them. They have a really powerful way of looking at the world,… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Race is the true protagonist of the American novel. Our most popular classic fictions have known this, from 'Moby Dick' to 'Beloved;'… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
It's hard to describe one's own alchemy that makes one into a writer, but I definitely think American language is so interesting,… — Kevin Young Alchemy Copy Share Image
Can you explore real issues as a fake character? Yes - it's called acting. Or fiction. But acting is not a method… — Kevin Young Acting Copy Share Image
When I'm in full-on writing mode and have the day, I try to get in my office around 10 A.M. and stop… — Kevin Young Day Copy Share Image
I write about what hoaxers do, but I also want us to think about what believers do. Why do we want to… — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
“Deep Song Belief is what buries us—that & the belief in belief— No longer do I trust liltlessness —leeward is the world's… — Kevin Young Belief Copy Share Image
For 'The Grey Album,' I'd been thinking about the good side of lying - lying as a kind of improvisatory act in… — Kevin Young Black culture Copy Share Image
Harper Lee's novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird' became iconic almost immediately after appearing in 1960: best-seller status; the Pulitzer Prize the next… — Kevin Young Academy award Copy Share Image
“I have come to know sorrow's not noun but verb, something that, unlike living, by doing right you do less of.” — Kevin Young Doing right Copy Share Image
“To waste this heart once more & have you here, not silent, only quiet, as before.” — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
Poems evolve. I don't feel like I choose them; they just come to me. — Kevin Young Change Copy Share Image
A poem can provide testimony. A poem can provide solace. It can provide a connection. — Kevin Young Connection Copy Share Image
I think that I try really hard to think about how we deceive ourselves, and we let ourselves be deceived. — Kevin Young Copy Share Image
