Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
-
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.
-
It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.
-
and sometimes I sit down at my typewriter and I think not of someone cause there isn't anyone to think about and i wonder is it worth it
-
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.
-
I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )
-
I have not tried to tell the people anything. I have shared my views with the people but I have not tried to lead or correct them, assuming they need correction.
-
You have to use what you have in order to get what you need and the people can not be rich unless somebody is rich. The Hip-Hop generation has carried more people with it than any other enterprise Black Americans have had.
-
We [Black people] have always used our creativity to battle and we're not the only ones. Black Americans are certainly leaders in that simply because we were denied education and dealt with enforced illiteracy. But people seem to always forget that literacy is not the only way of learning things or conveying knowledge.
-
Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.
-
We have a world to conquer...one person at a time...starting with ourselves.
-
Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.
-
There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.
-
Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.
-
If I could come back as anything - I'd be a bird, first, but definitely the command key is my second choice.
-
The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you to be, but the self you are. Enjoy yourself and your life. But most of all travel and eat. That's how we learn.
-
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
-
We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself.
-
The more you love someone the more he wants from you and the less you have to give since you've already given him your love.
-
There are things you stand up for because it’s right.
-
No one needs to teach you to be mean; we need to be taught to be kind.
-
Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
-
The job of the architect becomes more difficult in this secular age. Where once he had a god to extol, he now has humans like himself; where once he had "he," he now has "she" and "they.
-
All systems require myths for their longevity.
-
Everybody that loves freedom loves Harriet Tubman because she was determined not only to be free, but to make free as many people as she could.