Nikki Giovanni Quotes

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

We in the Black Arts movement, which wasn't really a movement but a group of people who had similar objectives ... ~ Nikki Giovanni

Nothing is easy to the unwilling. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

Maybe what will really work is we all need to have a fear tree in our backyard or a small fear plant growing on our apartment windowsill. When we are feeling uneasy we pluck a few leaves and find the right place to put them. Champagne would be the number one choice but spaghetti works, too. Have a little fear at least once a week and you will build up your resistance. Like a vaccination. Then, when wars and hatreds come along you'll be able to recognize that's just another expression of Fear. No thanks, I've had my quota. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

I am totally fascinated by people and our history as I understand and continue to explore it. People have so much to give and so far to go and yet we have given and gone a great distance. It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me. ~ Nikki Giovanni

The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you to be, but the self you are. Enjoy yourself and your life. But most of all travel and eat. That's how we learn. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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

I think speeches and fruit should always be fresh. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Choices

If i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do

It's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

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

Since i can't go
where i need
to go . . . then i must . . . go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

When i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal

I know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry ~ Nikki Giovanni

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- ~ Nikki Giovanni

I have not tried to tell the people anything. I have shared my views with the people but I have not tried to lead or correct them, assuming they need correction. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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 ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

History is wonderful. We have so much we can learn if we would quit making ideology out of history, and just deal with what happened. ~ Nikki Giovanni

I could hear music playing in the background of works by certain authors, like Poe and Shakespeare. And I discovered Nikki Giovanni when I was in eighth grade. Her writing has a musical energy with pulse and rhythm, almost like jazz or hip-hop. ~ Jill Scott

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Who I really am keeps surprising me. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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 ~ Nikki Giovanni

We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end. ~ Nikki Giovanni

I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Sacred cows make very poor gladiators. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together. ~ Nikki Giovanni

It is difficult to be an artist, because what you can see needs to be done and what you can achieve are generally two very opposite things. The two are like yin and yang, north and south, positive and negative. What you see is just totally opposite of what the reality can be, and that's unfortunate. But there are things we can do. Writers can either repave--we fill in some of the cracks in the road that are already there--or we start to knock down some of the weeds to make a clearing in the wilderness. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

i wanted to take
your hand and run with you
together toward
ourselves down the street to your street
i wanted to laugh aloud
and skip the notes past
the marquee advertising "women
in love" past the record
shop with "The Spirit
In The Dark" past the smoke shop
past the park and no
parking today signs
past the people watching me in
my blue velvet and i don't remember
what you wore but only that i didn't want
anything to be wearing you
i wanted to give
myself to the cyclone that is
your arms
and let you in the eye of my hurricane and know
the calm before

and some fall evening
after the cocktails
and the very expensive and very bad
steak served with day-old baked potatoes
after the second cup of coffee taken
while listening to the rejected
violin player
maybe some fall evening
when the taxis have passed you by
and that light sort of rain
that occasionally falls
in new york begins
you'll take a thought
and laugh aloud
the notes carrying all the way over
to me and we'll run again
together
toward each other
yes? ~ Nikki Giovanni

I think that too many strangers were in Nina Simone life, and not enough people that she knew and loved. ~ Nikki Giovanni

These are all direct quotes, except every time they use a curse word, I'm going to use the name of a famous American poet:
'You Walt Whitman-ing, Edna St. Vincent Millay! Go Emily Dickinson your mom!'
'Thanks for the advice, you pathetic piece of E.E. Cummings, but I think I'm gonna pass.'
'You Robert Frost-ing Nikki Giovanni! Get a life, nerd. You're a virgin.'
'Hey bro, you need to go outside and get some fresh air into you. Or a girlfriend.'
I need to get a girlfriend into me? I think that shows a fundamental lack of comprehension about how babies are made. ~ John Green

The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. ~ Nikki Giovanni

The job of the architect becomes more difficult in this secular age. Where once he had a god to extol, he now has humans like himself; where once he had "he," he now has "she" and "they. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Sometimes
when i wake up
in the morning
and see all the faces
i just can't
breathe
from Sometimes ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

It is called education because it is learned. You do not have to have had an experience in order to sympathize or empathize with the subject. That is why books are written: so that we do not have to do the same things. We learn from experience, true; but we also learn from empathy." A Theory of Patience ~ Nikki Giovanni

you see, my whole life
is tied up
to unhappiness
it's father cooking breakfast
and me getting fat as a hog
or having no food
at all and father proving
his incompetence
again
i wish i knew how it would feel
to be free
it's having a job
they won't let you work
or no work at all
castrating me
(yes it happens to women too)

it's a sex object if you're pretty
and no love
or love and no sex if you're fat
get back fat black woman be a mother
grandmother strong thing but not woman
gameswoman romantic woman love needer
man seeker dick eater sweat getter
fuck needing love seeking woman

it's a hole in your shoe
and buying lil sis a dress
and her saying you shouldn't
when you know
all too well that you shouldn't

but smiles are only something we give
to properly dressed social workers
not each other
only smiles of i know
your game sister
which isn't really
a smile

joy is finding a pregnant roach
and squashing it
not finding someone to hold
let go get off get back don't turn
me on you black dog
how dare you care
about me
you ain't go no good sense
cause i ain't shit you must be lower
than that to care

it's a filthy house
with yesterday's watermelon
and monday's tears
cause true ~ Nikki Giovanni

Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul. ~ Nikki Giovanni

In order to have a happy ending, in order to be triumphant, in order to be heroic, you have to tell your own story. The women's movement knows that; black people know that; brown people know that; yellow people know that. You have to be able to tell your own story in order to show that you are worthy--that you belong. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

I am of the generation of segregation. Black Lives Matter is post. I said today, and I will say all the time, "If Nina [Simone] were here, she'd have her Black Lives Matter [T-shirt] on." I think they're great kids. They don't need me or anybody else to tell them what to do. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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

I always thought that would be really neat if black people ever got control of the United States we would, of course, tear down some of the statues because we just don't like them...like all of Richmond would probably not have a statue standing. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

Daddy says the world is a drum tight and hard and i told him i'm gonna beat out my own rhythm ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

In the name of peace
They waged the wars
ain't they got no shame ~ Nikki Giovanni

Rage is to writers what water is to fish. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

i think any poem worth its salt, if poems can indeed be salty, should allow the reader to think. this poem is of course a chronological poem tracing the development of humans through the movement of black women. i have no feelings that the poem is exclusive of any one but i wanted to write a sassy hands-on-the-hips poem from the understanding that i am a woman and indeed was once a girl. i think it works because the more you know about anthropology and history the more you can follow what i am saying; on the other hand you can be a little child with no previous experiences and catch the joy of the poem. it goes from the first human bones discovered all the way to the space age. what has been included is as important to me as what has been excluded. what i strove to do was show progress, movement, humor and a bit of pride.

this is the most i've ever commented on any poem of mine since i tend to agree with t.s. eliot when he said a poet was the last person to know what the poem was/is about. ~ Nikki Giovanni

America may not be the best nation on earth, but it has conceived loftier ideals and dreamed higher dreams than any other nation. America is a heterogeneous nation of many different people of different races, religions, and creeds. Should this experiment go forth and prosper, we will have offered humans a new way to look at life; should it fail, we will simply go the way of all failed civilizations. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Educational progress is a national concern; education is a private one. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Allowables
I killed a spider
Not a murderous brown recluse
Nor even a black widow
And if the truth were told this
Was only a small spider
Sort of papery spider
Who should have run
When I picked up the book
But she didn't
And she scared me
And I smashed her
I don't think
I'm allowed
To kill something
Because I am
Frightened. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Ego Tripping

I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad

I sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful woman

I gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat's meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can't catch me

For a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother's day
My strength flows ever on

My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach e ~ Nikki Giovanni

I was responding to one thing for the woman I knew, and there's another thing for what did she give, right. She [Nina Simone] was a great teacher. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

And sometimes I sit down at my typewriter and I think not of someone cause there isn't anyone to think about and i wonder is it worth it ~ Nikki Giovanni

Though I worship nothing (save myself)
You were my savior - so be it
And it was
Perhaps not never more or ever after
But after all - once you were mine ~ Nikki Giovanni

Poems don't have to rhyme. Poems are about beauty and emotion; in other words poems are about feelings. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Wind as old as Rome outside my window, inky fleece clouds against charcoal crushed velvet skies, fall feels soulful, like a LaBelle octave. ~ Brandi L. Bates

We are all more than our experiences
And less than our dreams
~ from "I Am Glass ~ Nikki Giovanni

I think that, in reality, there is something wrong with human beings, and unless we are willing to face the fact that something is really wrong with human beings, unless we are willing to face the fact that somewhere in our imaginations we are evil, vicious people, it is not going to work. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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

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

Everything starts with writing. I heard Nikki Giovanni and was blown away. I just thought 'wow'; she was writing from a black girl's perspective, and the imagery was so vivid that I started doing spoken word. ~ Jill Scott

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

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. ~ Nikki Giovanni

If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eye
finding peace in a crowded room ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

I don't have a life-style, I have a life. ~ Nikki Giovanni

FOR SONIA SANCHEZ ~ Nikki Giovanni

I appreciate and enjoy my age. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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 ~ Nikki Giovanni

Everyone understands that love comes in many different packages and is used in many different ways. You cannot love beyond your years, nor can you fail to love beneath them.In other words, I think you get the love you need when you open your heart. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

I'm told by my young friends that experience is much more important than books. Of course Ben Franklin had something to say about experience and fools, but even Franklin thought that a fool would learn by his experience. That has proven false in the modern world. Some people are simply unwilling to learn under any circumstances, which maybe, even then, wouldn't be so bad if they weren't so damned proud of it. ~ Nikki Giovanni

If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other. ~ Nikki Giovanni

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

If loneliness were a grape
the wine would be vintage
If it were a wood
the furniture would be mahogany
But since it is life it is
Cotton Candy
on a rainy day
The sweet soft essence
of possibility
Never quite maturing
from Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day ~ Nikki Giovanni

And everybody was happy that uncle lee was able to get that scholarship even though you wondered when you could do quadratic equations in your head why you had a basketball scholarship but you always knew that you had to take what they were giving since that was all you were going to get but you never fooled yourself about either the taking or the giving or the needing or the having you just sort of said to yourself I'll have to see what is being offered ~ Nikki Giovanni

I hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live ~ Nikki Giovanni