Top 199 Quotes & Sayings by Nikki Giovanni - Page 3

Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.

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.

We must invest in tomorrow. And pay our teachers for teaching as we pay our coaches for coaching.

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.

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

I’m a big fan of history—applying the lessons as well as the joys and sadness. If we pay attention, we would see how we affect each other. In terms of time, we are not that far from one another. If we were to look back a century, it would seem like a long time; but, if we look at it by decades then it’s only 10 years, and by generations it’s only five.

All systems require myths for their longevity.

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

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

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.

I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh.

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

I appreciate my my sleep In sleep my conversation is witty My home is dusted My office work is up to date The dog is even well behaved And food is on the table on time But then when I'm asleep I don't have you to clutter and confuse My hungry heart

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

Nina Simone's music is incredibly honest. That's like saying, "Why does Jesus' word still stay around?" It's incredibly honest and it's good.

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

Who I am really keeps surprising me.

Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. All conversations with older people contain repetition. Some of the ideas mean a lot to me, just interesting, so I both embrace and attack the ideas because I found them, well, delightful.

Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.

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.

Nothing improves your writing, I think, as much as your keeping writing.

Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.

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.

[My] Books are like puppies and children: you love each one for different reasons. I don't actually have a favorite because, if I were honest, I'm always more excited about what is coming.

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.

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

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.

If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes.

Floating to shore...riding a low moon...on a slow cloud.

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

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 wish that she had had a black loon because I don't think that Nina [Simone] did. I have always had - I've been very fortunate - a group of little old ladies that I love and who love me, and who turned and to whom I turn at different times.

When younger, I thought one of the particulars of being "Homo sapiens" was to communicate. I have not learned not to, though I am cautious when I try.

It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend.

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.

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.

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.

A lot is yet to be enjoyed. I'd like to stomp grapes for wine. Go to Antarctica. Have dinner with Venus Williams who is the greatest tennis player ever.

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.

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 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."

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

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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

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

I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

Death is a slave's freedom.

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

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