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I don't feel that I have to control every aspect of things that I appear in. You learn a lot performing someone else's writing.

Writing is an incredibly creatively empowering experience for me. It is the place where nobody tries to control what I'm doing.

When I am composing, I try to clear my mind of having to publish, or having to sell a book or find readers. That kind of thinking gets in the way.

If you're actually allowing your creative part to control your writing rather than a more commercial instinct or motive, then you'll find that all sorts of interesting things will bubble up to the surface.

I think as an artist or a writer it's OK to want to control your own work.

My goal as a writer is more to comfort than to disturb.

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different.

When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.

Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.