Nikki Giovanni

“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.”

“i move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.”

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

“If i can't havewhat i want . . . thenmy job is to wantwhat i've gotand be satisfiedthat at least thereis something more to want”

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

“i hope i diewarmedby the life that i triedto live”

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

“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.”

“Today I am 65 years old. I still look good. I appreciate and enjoy my age. 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. You still bring to bear all your prior experience, but you are riding on another level. It's completely liberating.”

“Writers don't write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don't. ...If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.”

“I’ve not learned the acceptable way of saying you fascinate me...I’ve not even learned how to say I like you without frightening people away-”

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

“Black love is black wealth”

“I grow old though pleased with my memoriesThe tasks I can no longer completeAre balanced by the love of the tasks gone pastI offer no apology onlythis plea: When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the endPlease someone cut a square and put me in a quiltThat I might keep some child warmAnd some old person with no one else to talk toWill hear my whispersAnd cuddlenear”

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

“Ego TrippingI was born in the congoI walked to the fertile crescent and built the sphinxI designed a pyramid so tough that a star that only glows every one hundred years falls into the center giving divine perfect lightI am badI sat on the throne drinking nectar with allahI got hot and sent an ice age to europe to cool my thirstMy oldest daughter is nefertiti the tears from my birth pains created the nileI am a beautiful womanI gazed on the forest and burned out the sahara desert with a packet of goat's meat and a change of clothesI crossed it in two hoursI am a gazelle so swift so swift you can't catch me For a birthday present when he was threeI gave my son hannibal an elephant He gave me rome for mother's dayMy strength flows ever onMy son noah built new/ark andI stood proudly at the helm as we sailed on a soft summer dayI turned myself into myself and was jesus men intone my loving name All praises All praisesI am the one who would saveI sowed diamonds in my back yardMy bowels deliver uranium the filings from my fingernails are semi-precious jewels On a trip northI caught a cold and blewMy nose giving oil to the arab worldI am so hip even my errors are correctI sailed west to reach east and had to round off the earth as I went The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid across three continentsI am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surrealI cannot be comprehended except by my permissionI mean...I...can fly like a bird in the sky...”

“I am so hip even my errors are correct.”

“daddy says the world is a drum tight and hardand i told himi’m gonna beat out my own rhythm”

“If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.”

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

“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.”

“DONT EVER BE AFRAID TO COME TO ME N CRY ...DONT EVER HESITATE TO LOOK ME N THE EYE DONT EVER BE AFRAID TO TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL. REMEMBAER YOUR MY GIRL N WE GOTTA KEEP IT REAL.”

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

“If I can't do what I want to do, then my job is to not do what I want to do. It's not the same thing, but it's the best thing I can do.”

“And you will understand all too soonThat you, my children of battle, are your heroes”

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

“ChoicesIf i can't dowhat i want to dothen my job is to notdo what i don't wantto doIt's not the same thingbut it's the best i candoIf i can't havewhat i want . . . thenmy job is to wantwhat i've gotand be satisfiedthat at least thereis something more to wantSince i can't gowhere i needto go . . . then i must . . . gowhere the signs pointthrough always understandingparallel movementisn't lateralWhen i can't expresswhat i really feeli practice feelingwhat i can expressand none of it is equalI knowbut that's why mankindalone among the animalslearns to cry”

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

“and sometimes I sitdown at my typewriterand I thinknot of someonecause there isn't anyoneto thinkabout and i wonderis it worth it”

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

“I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the future. When I went to college I became a history major because history is such a wonderful story of who we think we are. English is much more a story of who we really are.”

“Nothing is easy to the unwilling.”

“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.”

“We love because it's the only true adventure.”