Nikki Giovanni Quotes - Page 2

Libraries...house our dreams.

There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.

Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.

Black love is black wealth

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.

I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.

We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.

I want to be clear about this. If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die.

Who I really am keeps surprising me.

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.

the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by.

Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

No one needs to teach you to be mean; we need to be taught to be kind.

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.

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )

I used to dream militant dreams of taking over america to show these whitefolks how it should be done i used to dream radical dreams of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers of correct analysis i even used to think that i'd be the one to stop the riot and negotiate the peace then i awoke & dug that if i dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she's natural i would have a revolution.

There are things you stand up for because it’s right.

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.

I don't have a life-style, I have a life.

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.

If i can't have what i want . . . then my job is to want what i've got and be satisfied that at least there is something more to want

If you are sitting there waiting for someone to tell you how wonderful you are, you'll never get anything done. Women need to get over being women. I'm tired of that socialization of women; that we are always supposed to be sitting around pleasing somebody.