Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. (Nikki Giovanni) Quotes
We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself.
Quotes to Explore
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I live on the same street as my family, actually. I live across the road. I'm a real family person!
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The joining of the whole congregation in prayer has something exceedingly solemn and affecting in it.
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I have great respect for children. And I have great respect for their ability as writers.
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I just want to do my job.
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My opinion, my conviction, gains immensely in strength and sureness the minute a second mind as adopted it.
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I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.
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You want private education for your students? No problem whatsoever; pay for it.
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I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact.
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But the beginning of things, of a world especially, is necessarily vague, tangled, chaotic, and exceedingly disturbing. How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!
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As for my own music, I've never written a book about it. I'm not pedagogical... When I write an abstract piano sonata or a concerto, I write what I feel. I'm not a self-conscious composer.
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Reality TV is easier to digest if it comes in small amounts.
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What bothers me, I guess, is when I get these messages from girls on Twitter, and they're like, 'God, you're my idol, I really admire you.' It's like, 'Admire me for what? What have I done?' It's not that being in a Burberry campaign, or walking in a Chanel show is nothing. It's just... I know I can do more.
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The laws of the marketplace are physical laws, and they don't become suspended in a crisis any more than the law of gravity does.
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I can't inhabit my characters until I know what kind of work they do. This requires research because my jobs for the last decade have been author and professor, and I'd like to spare the world more author or professor novels.
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Conflict is the beginning of consciousness.
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I think most Americans don't really care about politicians bickering in Washington.
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For years I felt that I didn't have enough stamina and then, four years ago, I felt like I was not getting enough air but I was diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma. The medicine for asthma never worked.
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I have the same friends and the same bad habits.
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I really do hope 'The Hate U Give' provides mirrors for readers who don't often get them in books. I've had so many young black girls tell me just how thrilled they are to see someone who looks like them on the cover. I hope that they see themselves in the pages as well.
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People hate cardio. I hate cardio. But pick the five top songs that you love. Do your cardio during these songs, and you're done. I'd say 95 percent of the time you don't even know you just did it.
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To say I was near our president, performing at the Nobel Peace Prize... I think that's an amazing thing.
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If I tell you there's cheese on the moon, bring the crackers.
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The Futurists believed in the machine, in making a great big fuss, in being young. For a brief moment, they were arguably the most influential aesthetic provocateurs in the world.
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We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself.
