Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni, Jr. Quotes
-
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
-
There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.
-
Black Americans should be given credit for finding probably the perfect weapon; the weapon of the song. And that song continues. Most holocausts don't, so they have this bitterness left over. The phenomenon of the world, as far as Black Americans are considered, is that we are not a bitter people.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.
-
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.
-
There are some things we do simply because the doing is a success.
-
Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
-
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.
-
Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.
-
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.
-
Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together.
-
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.
-
I try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.
-
Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.
-
Black Poetry is not for Black People...it is for everybody
-
Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.
-
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.
-
I always like summer best
-
And you will understand all too soon That you, my children of battle, are your heroes
-
All systems require myths for their longevity.
-
Life is a marvelous, transitory adventure.