Nikki Giovanni Quotes - Page 7

I try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.

Death is a slave's freedom.

Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.

Ever been kidnapped by a poet if i were a poet i'd kidnap you put you in my phrases and meter.

Poetry is music though, unfortunately, not all music is poetry. Because music has other carriers to take its message - beats, lyrics, singers, bass players - anyone in music can rise to make a major statement but in poetry there are only words to do the work. And they do sometimes have to sweat.

I am a big fan of the electronic book. I hate to see the old bookstores close, but they have to reinvent themselves. I believe the First Edition bookstore will be the next thing. People will read electronically, then decide they want to own that book. The author will then be invited to the old bookstores to sign. I think books will always be with us, but they will fill a different need.

In law school they teach you that everything is a contract; well, in poetry everything is a narrative.

We are all either wheels or connectors. Whichever we are we must find truth and balance, which is a bicycle. Trust and balance are also essential to true love.

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 knew Stokely [Carmichael] and them, but when you got to that, you saw that Nina Simone started to take up their burden. She started to preach for them. She was taking on the burden of "I want to tell the people."

I think that too many strangers were in her [Nina Simone's] life, and not enough people that she knew and loved.

I think it's the strength of her music, using art to make a statement. I think it really is. It was not a cheap gift. The gift was an expensive gift for Nina [Simone]. Diamonds are expensive. Her music was expensive. She paid for it, but I think it's her greatest gift.

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.

One stands, in fact, in awe of the Constitution of the United States, though it is an idea and not quite a reality.

Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.

The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.

I used to go up to her house. She lived upstate [in New York] and I lived in Manhattan; you're living in a lot of noise and my career was being built. For me to spend time with Nina [Simone] is to spend a lot of quiet time.

I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people. It's strange that the only time the major press talks about them is when someone gets killed or does drugs or something; yet these are the same press people who made heroes out of the Mafia and other crooks, you know.

Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.

I'm an old storyteller. I tell the story. It's about the story.

I had a really nice childhood; I had great parents. I earned my allowance by washing dishes, and in the summer I earned my allowance by working in daddy's garden.

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked... . We as black people, we as people, we as the human species have got to get used to the fact we're not going to be right most of the time, not even when our intentions are good. We've got to go naked and see what happens.

I spend a lot of time learning about bird watching.

Schools should serve breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. No sugared drinks, no fast type food.

Language instruction should start in the first grade. Writing, also.