Quotes from Amanda Gorman

You don't have to be a poet, you don't have to be a politician or be in the White House to make an impact with your words. We all have this capacity to find solutions for the future.

It's this weird binary where I'm getting media images and narratives thrown at me all the time through something I hold in my hand, and that's never happened to other generations. But also with this little object in my hand, I have the ability to document police brutality, or post about the Syrian conflict on Twitter.

I have to interweave my poetry with purpose. For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.

When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.

I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.

One of the most rewarding moments of my career is when I'm speaking to a child who tells me they have the same speech impediment that I had to overcome and that they're going to keep writing or sharing their voice after hearing my story.

What contributed to my writing early on is how my mom encouraged it. She kept the TV off because she wanted my siblings and I to be engaged and active. So we made forts, put on plays, musicals, and I wrote like crazy.

I was obsessed with everything and anything; I wanted to learn everything, to read everything, to do everything. I was constantly on sensory overload. I'd hoard dozens of books in my second-grade cubby, and literally try to read two at a time, side by side.

My Instagram doesn't cover my insecurities, my lack of self-confidence, that week I spent crying... there's a question of whether I should be sharing that online.

I love Black poets. I love that as a Black girl, I get to participate in that legacy. So that's Yusef Komunyakaa, Sonia Sanchez, Tracy K. Smith, Phillis Wheatley.

But as for the future, I foresee a world which is more creative, more open, more loving, more ecologically friendly, more honest about its history and progress, and I think a lot of those contributions will be made by young people.

I did a lot of sitting back and thinking about what I wanted for myself and what I wanted for my country: more unity, more support for the arts and more opportunities for young writers from marginalized groups.

I'm a student at Harvard University, and currently work as the United States Youth Poet Laureate, a community organizer, and an activist.

It was so incredible meeting Lady Gaga. I mean I'm gaga for Gaga, literally. We kind of just each flew to each other like magnets after the ceremony ended and we were both just crying and hugging.

I try to approach reading in front of millions of people as I would reading in somebody's living room.

I was born early, along with my twin, and a lot of times, for infants, that can lead to learning delays.

I think that's the challenge of our generation: if we are all technology natives, how do we live with influence both online and off, and how do we make sure that both of those aren't lacking in some type of deeper human connection and substance?

Writing wasn't just a form of expression. It was a form of pathology by embarking on spoken word over and over and over again and reciting my poems.

This is a long, long, faraway goal, but 2036 I am running for office to be president of the United States. So you can put that in your iCloud calendar.

My speech impediment wasn't a stutter but it was dropping several letters that I just could not say for several years, most specifically the 'r' sound.

The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.