My mother a teacher encouraged me to use my creativity as an actual way to make a living and my father a Mississippi physician did two things. First he taught me that all human beings should be treated equally because no one is better than anyone else and he never pressured me to become a doctor.

Still language is resilient and poetry when it is pressured simply goes underground.

I don't think young men or women should feel pressured into marriage. You shouldn't marry anyone in my opinion who you have to try hard for.

I mean I look at my dad. He was twenty when he started having a family and he was always the coolest dad. He did everything for his kids and he never made us feel like he was pressured. I know that it must be a great feeling to be a guy like that.

Young people discovering their sexuality must know they walk with a strong tradition and that they are not alone. They have a right to information without being pressured.