If a kid is reading a book about someone who looks like them but doesn't talk like them, we stunt their growth by dissing them.

I would go to the store, I would buy cassette tapes, and I would read the liner notes and sort of subconsciously creating the connections between the rappers that I was reading and the poets that they were teaching us in school.

I am a consummate metaphor addict.

I read 'The Young Landlords' and felt almost a chemical change. What I realized while reading that book was that I could write in my voice, use my tongue, my language, my style, and write a story.

I wanted to be a poet. I fell in love with poetry around eight years old, but not through literature. Instead, it came through hip-hop lyrics and my obsession with reading liner notes. Queen Latifah's 'Black Reign' is the album that stands out the most.

Boston is pretty infamous for race relations.

The people who know me do not ask me about the next book or how it's going. They ask, 'Jason, are you sleeping?' because they know my brain will not shut down.

I love, loved, loved 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I try to create characters people want to sit with, even if nothing is happening.

We've always been told to pretend as if we're not afraid.