Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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We must invest in tomorrow. And pay our teachers for teaching as we pay our coaches for coaching.
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You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write.
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I am of the generation of segregation. Black Lives Matter is post. I said today, and I will say all the time, "If Nina [Simone] were here, she'd have her Black Lives Matter [T-shirt] on." I think they're great kids. They don't need me or anybody else to tell them what to do.
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I am so hip even my errors are correct
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I just think she was a wonderful woman. What I think of when I think of Nina [Simone] is someone that I could relate to, who didn't want anything from me, that could relate to me because I didn't want anything from her. It was nice.
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And like an unfaithful mate, once a car has let you down you never sort of trust it again.
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you know a person is having a severe personality crisis if you see a high school class ring on a finger beyond the first semester in college. Male or female. It's a big sign saying nothing has mattered to my life since senior year.
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Sacred cows make very poor gladiators.
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You do what you can with what you have. You have to work the edges whatever they are. The main thing is keeping your integrity.
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A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it.
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When younger, I thought one of the particulars of being "Homo sapiens" was to communicate. I have not learned not to, though I am cautious when I try.
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The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.
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You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.
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I’ve not learned the acceptable way of saying you fascinate me...I’ve not even learned how to say I like you without frightening people away-
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I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not do.
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Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.
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A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.
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I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, 'Hey, I don't like white people.'
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School should be eleven months of the year.
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Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.
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I used to dream militant dreams of taking over america to show these whitefolks how it should be done i used to dream radical dreams of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers of correct analysis i even used to think that i'd be the one to stop the riot and negotiate the peace then i awoke & dug that if i dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she's natural i would have a revolution.
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In law school they teach you that everything is a contract; well, in poetry everything is a narrative.
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Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.
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go barefoot and be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep