Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. (Nikki Giovanni) Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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It took me a while and a lot of hard times to figure out my purpose, I am so happy with my life. I just want to help make other people happy, too.
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I didn't audition for 'SNL.' I sent in a tape to 'SNL' the year before I started writing there, but I got the job there through doing stand-up on Fallon.
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Pursuit and seduction are the essence of sexuality. It's part of the sizzle.
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I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty.
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Chicken and horse meat are the best foods for weightlifters, and good food is important.
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I am writing a book called 'The History of Australia in Hundred Objects.' It's of things we have invented in Australia. And you know, some of them are amazing. We invented the clapper boards used in films. We invented those cranes - those big long cranes used on construction sites.
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The idea of going on tour for the rest of my life with old works is not that exciting. As an artist I definitely think the work in future is going to be better than the work in the past, otherwise why do it?
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I'm a very competitive person. You won't change things unless you are prepared to fight, even if you don't win. But I do hate losing.
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When I was first elected I got 50% of the vote in '77 in the general election. In '81 I got 75%. In '85, I got 78%. No mayor has ever gotten that high a vote. So it was not an issue. Except for people who were very hostile to me. They thought they would injure me.
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Film is my hobby, so I will work well through the night to develop films, whatever film I'm doing or dream projects I have.
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I went to the studio of Fischli Weiss, and it was magical. I thought: 'This is what I want to do with my life; I want to work with artists and be useful to them.' I was magnetically attracted.
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Laws are to be enforced justly but firmly, with an iron hand. This is the case anywhere, even in a family.
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By adversity are wrought the greatest works of admiration, and all the fair examples of renown, out of distress and misery are grown.
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To make theater out of real life, you need to catch dialogue when it happens.
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Every vote should carry a serial number, so that responsibility for harmful or careless use of the vote can be traced. Concealed voting should be outlawed.
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There are many women with children under five who want to work and who lack affordable, high-quality child care.
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There are those who seem to feel they have no choice about being jerks in the present because they had a crappy childhood. Well, that's the definition of childhood; nobody gets out alive. You either get stronger from what you experience, or you turn it into a crutch, an excuse, a dodge.
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If my parents ever had to ground me, they didn't really know what that would mean, because I was inside most of the time anyway.
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It's always been the case that politicians want different things from children than good educators do. Good educators want imaginative, exploratory beings, but politicians just want economic units.
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We need to quit arguing about whether the glass is half full or half empty - and instead acknowledge that there's not quite enough water to go around.
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There's plenty of situations where we'll come up with guys on base, less than two outs, and those are opportunities for us to help ourselves out.
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You graduate from film school and move to Hollywood. Hollywood tells you, 'We're not the place for you to make films,' so you decide you have to make a film yourself.
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You grow. You don't want to stay the same. The thing that was great for you before isn't going to be great for you now. A woman should have many faces through her life, not just one face, not just one hairdo, not just one way. You want to keep rediscovering what's fun for you.
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School should be eleven months of the year.
