Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. (Nikki Giovanni) Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I would have been completely brainwashed by this lopsided and racist view of the world if it weren't for my father. He was a deep thinker and an irrepressible problem solver. He was a Black Socrates, asking why and then spoiling ready-made replies.
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My extreme characters are in a state of rebellion or who are being ostracized or being misunderstood, or misfits or trying to fit in and fighting for their rights to love, live, and co-exist. They sort of mirror my own demons.
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I don't have hard numbers about this, but the impression I get is that the amount of eyeballs you get from being on the humor shelf at Barnes & Noble - it is almost insignificant.
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This is how I feel about the LGBT community: they are people just like us.
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I would have to be able to come and go as I please. I could not sit in some office.
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I thought of myself as an adult trapped in a kid's body. Had I known what adulthood was like, I would have embraced childhood a little more.
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Regardless of how good or bad a collection might be, it's a letdown after the show is over. It's done. Something you've worked on for months is just over.
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In business or in life, don't follow the wagon tracks too closely.
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For every problem or confusion and for every desire or ambition there is an available force waiting for your call.
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With our lives and food chain set up to make us fat - I mean, you can't drive down any highway in America and find a grapefruit - a guy needs to be smarter and more determined to get lean.
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In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write.
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One thing about being a celebrity that I learned a long time ago was that I pretty much gave up the right to fair treatment.
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We cannot guarantee that a humanitarian catastrophe of the extent of the Holocaust will not happen again. On the contrary, we witness a catalogue of atrocities every day in wars across the globe.
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I’ll never forget my very first [SNL] show. I had a card in my changing room from Kristen Wiig. It just had a heart on the inside, and she’d written “Have fun.” That always stayed with me.
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When I work a game as an analyst, all I do is look at the game like a coach.
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The killing of innocent people is a sin.
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What is the relationship between spirituality and ethical practice? Since love and compassion and similar qualities all, by definition, presume some level of concern for others' well-being, they presume ethical restraint. We cannot be loving and compassionate unless at the same time we curb our own harmful impulses and desires.
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It's always a good idea to sit at the fun table.
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I do get a lot of requests for specific things.
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If longevity is the best index to measure a company, a basic requirement is the ability of the corporation to generate new and new leaders.
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Having done something like The Thorn Birds gives you enormous longevity. You can keep picking and choosing the roles for a bit longer.
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Some people today claim that cultures rooted in oral tradition are far more careful to make certain that traditions that are told and retold are not changed significantly. This turns out to be a modern myth, however. Anthropologists who have studied oral cultures show that just the opposite is the case. Only literary cultures have a concern for exact replication of the facts “as they really are.” And this is because in literary cultures, it is possible to check the sources to see whether someone has changed a story. In oral cultures, it is widely expected that stories will indeed change—they change anytime a storyteller is telling a story in a new context. New contexts require new ways of telling stories. Thus, oral cultures historically have seen no problem with altering accounts as they were told and retold.
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All systems require myths for their longevity.
