Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.
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The only way you can grow is to let yourself make mistakes and create contradictions. As we learn new things, some of our old attitudes will change.
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It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.
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The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.
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There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.
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We just didn't put any pressure on each other, and I think that everybody needs somebody, and I didn't do it to try to do it; it's what we [with Nina Simone] were to each other.
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Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.
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I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.
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Rage is to writers what water is to fish.
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We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.
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If you're creating a slave situation, you would almost never bring women. And if we look at Slavery for example, we look at the Greeks and the Romans, right? It was always men. They never brought any women. Because women carry the seeds of the revolution, right? And if you have the men by themselves, then you can do what the French did with the Blackfeet, which is breed them out.
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Nina Simone's music is incredibly honest. That's like saying, "Why does Jesus' word still stay around?" It's incredibly honest and it's good.
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I think it's the strength of her music, using art to make a statement. I think it really is. It was not a cheap gift. The gift was an expensive gift for Nina [Simone]. Diamonds are expensive. Her music was expensive. She paid for it, but I think it's her greatest gift.
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I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the future. When I went to college I became a history major because history is such a wonderful story of who we think we are. English is much more a story of who we really are.
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History is wonderful. We have so much we can learn if we would quit making ideology out of history, and just deal with what happened.
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If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.
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Young people coming up who are having difficulty with their so-called celebrity need to get back into their lives. It's your life and you can't let the fact that you do something pretty good take away the joy of it.
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I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
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The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.
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What's the difference between dragging a black man behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, and beating a white boy to death in Wyoming because he's gay?
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I appreciate my my sleep In sleep my conversation is witty My home is dusted My office work is up to date The dog is even well behaved And food is on the table on time But then when I'm asleep I don't have you to clutter and confuse My hungry heart
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I am a huge fan of the Black woman. I never hesitate to recommend her when times are bad or things go wrong.
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I used to go up to her house. She lived upstate [in New York] and I lived in Manhattan; you're living in a lot of noise and my career was being built. For me to spend time with Nina [Simone] is to spend a lot of quiet time.
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War is not a jobs program.