Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
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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.
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Baseball is already the world's most tranquil sport. It is probably the only active sport where you are not seriously required to be alive to play.
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We have a world to conquer...one person at a time...starting with ourselves.
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There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.
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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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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.
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Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
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If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.
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Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.
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We need to make sure our children travel to see things. Not necessarily long distances but at least out of the neighborhood. On a train. A boat. An airplane.
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You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.
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Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together.
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There are some things we do simply because the doing is a success.
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Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state of mind. Those who accept it are poor; those who struggle are middle class.
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Most of my books are a two-year project. I tend to follow my heart and my mind and research materials where they take me.
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I try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.
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Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.
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Black Poetry is not for Black People...it is for everybody
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My main strength as a young writer was that I had no fear of making mistakes. I knew I would and I knew I could and would learn from them.
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All systems require myths for their longevity.
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I always like summer best
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Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.
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Life is a marvelous, transitory adventure.
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And you will understand all too soon That you, my children of battle, are your heroes