Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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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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Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.
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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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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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For most of my life, I've thought of myself as pretty cool.
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I knew Stokely [Carmichael] and them, but when you got to that, you saw that Nina Simone started to take up their burden. She started to preach for them. She was taking on the burden of "I want to tell the people."
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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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His headstone said FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST But death is a slave's freedom We seek the freedom of free men And the construction of a world Where Martin Luther King could have lived and preached nonviolence.
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VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there
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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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I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.
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I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
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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 spend a lot of time learning about bird watching.
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Everyone understands that love comes in many different packages and is used in many different ways. You cannot love beyond your years, nor can you fail to love beneath them... In other words, I think you get the love you need when you open your heart.
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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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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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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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If I can't do what I want to do, then my job is to not do what I want to do. It's not the same thing, but it's the best thing I can do.
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I would put books on par with chocolate, because a good book is delicious.
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In the name of peace They waged the wars ain't they got no shame
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We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.
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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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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