Nikki Giovanni Quotes - Page 6

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.

The ability to take pride in your own work is one of the hallmarks of sanity.

My dream is a red dress Above my knees High-heel red sandals And me coming over the top The music booming Hi Howie I will say With a lovely smile I don't want to play the game I want to be it.

Who I am really keeps surprising me.

Poetry and music are very good friends. Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream - they go together.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, humans resist change. Change will occur; vacuums will be filled.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write.

I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.

The nature of tragedy and accident is that we cannot predict.

If culture was a railroad, I can see the tracks running from the Spirituals to the Hip Hop Nation.

I do not understand why any poet or writer would run for office; that's a different sense of who you are. I'm just a poet. I am as truthful as I can be. That makes me an artist. I heed the people; I do not lead the people.

We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about who buys my work, or who likes it, and who doesn't. The people who I want to be proud of me already are.

Educational progress is a national concern; education is a private one.

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.

Poetry is the most mistaught subject in any school because we teach poetry by form and not by content.

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

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.

I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not do.

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important to pay attention. It keeps you from being bored, and I might add it keeps you from being boorish.

And like an unfaithful mate, once a car has let you down you never sort of trust it again.

Poetry is like air. It's one of the necessary things. Everyone benefits from poetry. And as you know, poetry is international. There are only two things that are truly international, poetry and wine.

For most of my life, I've thought of myself as pretty cool.

The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.

We believe 'Peter Rabbit' because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to.

Iife/personality must be taken as a total entity. All of your life is all of your life, and no one incident stands alone.