Nikki Giovanni Quotes

Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.

There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don't expect you to save the world I do think it's not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.

Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans. If we can’t drive, we will invent walks and the world will envy the dexterity of our feet. If we can’t have ham, we will boil chitterlings; if we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers; if given scraps, we will make quilts; take away our drums, and we will clap our hands. We prove the human spirit will prevail. We will take what we have to make what we need. We need confidence in our knowledge of who we are.

A lot of people resist transition and therefore never allow themselves to enjoy who they are. Embrace the change, no matter what it is; once you do, you can learn about the new world you're in and take advantage of it.

She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't.

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.

The only way you can grow is to let yourself make mistakes and create contradictions. As we learn new things, some of our old attitudes will change.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We have a world to conquer...one person at a time...starting with ourselves.

You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.

We love because it's the only true adventure.

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.

Once you know who you are, you don't have to worry anymore.

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

The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.

Mistakes are a fact of life. If you are willing to be wrong then you have earned the right to be right.

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

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.

Now, everything I do, I do because I want to. And I believe the best is yet to come.

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 are better than we think and not yet what we want to be.

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.

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

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

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

There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.

The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.

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.

Daddy says the world is a drum tight and hard and I told him I'm gonna beat out my own rhythm.

I would put books on par with chocolate, because a good book is delicious.

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

go barefoot and be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep

VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there

I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops.

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.

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.

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.

The more you love someone the more he wants from you and the less you have to give since you've already given him your love.

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

Hip-hop is a cultural expression - it's embracing.

Who I really am keeps surprising me.

It's not a ladder we're climbing, it's literature we're producing. . . . We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people.

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

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

You do what you can with what you have. You have to work the edges whatever they are. The main thing is keeping your integrity.

I grow old though pleased with my memories The tasks I can no longer complete Are balanced by the love of the tasks gone past I offer no apology only this plea: When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt That I might keep some child warm And some old person with no one else to talk to Will hear my whispers And cuddle near

Schools should be integrated by race and by class.

Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.

Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.

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