Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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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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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 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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Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.
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Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.
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We love because it's the only true adventure.
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I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.
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I like what they're doing. I think they're doing a good job, and I know that a lot of people are upset by them. These are great young men and women, and they're bold, and they are saying to America, "Something's going to change." I'm very proud of them.
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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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VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there
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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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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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[To write poems] I think it's important to do research, and research mostly is going to come from books, so all of your reading is potentially helpful to your poetry.
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The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.
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We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.
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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 grow old though pleased with my memories The tasks I can no longer complete Are balanced by the love of the tasks gone past I offer no apology only this plea: When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt That I might keep some child warm And some old person with no one else to talk to Will hear my whispers And cuddle near
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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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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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Who I am really keeps surprising me.
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It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.
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Libraries...house our dreams.
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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?