Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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It's not a ladder we're climbing, it's literature we're producing. . . . We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people.
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[My] Books are like puppies and children: you love each one for different reasons. I don't actually have a favorite because, if I were honest, I'm always more excited about what is coming.
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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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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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The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.
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I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.
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We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.
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I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.
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Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.
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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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VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there
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I spend a lot of time learning about bird watching.
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I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
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A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked... . We as black people, we as people, we as the human species have got to get used to the fact we're not going to be right most of the time, not even when our intentions are good. We've got to go naked and see what happens.
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Who I am really keeps surprising me.
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I think we're always in love. It's that simple. And it's important to remember that love doesn't have anything to do with sex. It's two different things. Being in love is the happy part. I was teasing my gentleman, "We know that you're in love when you cook for us." It's true. When men cook for you, they're in love.
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I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )
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Poetry is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we are describing, ultimately we use either a metaphor; or we say "that's poetry in motion." You drink a glass of wine and say, "that's poetry in a bottle." Everything is poetry, so I think we come down to emotional information. And that's what poetry conveys.
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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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I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.
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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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Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.
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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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We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.