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1 " the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by. "
― Nikki Giovanni
2 " and sometimes I sitdown at my typewriterand I thinknot of someonecause there isn't anyoneto thinkabout and i wonderis it worth it "
3 " 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. "
4 " 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. "
5 " If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes. "
6 " we used to talk all nightand do things alone togetherand i’ve begun(as a reaction to a feeling)to balancethe pleasure of lonelinessagainst the painof loving you "
― Nikki Giovanni , Love Poems
7 " 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 ,
8 " i move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't. "
9 " 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 , Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea
10 " The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. "
11 " 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. "
12 " 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 timeBut then when I'm asleep I don't have you to clutter and confuseMy hungry heart "
13 " His headstone saidFREE AT LAST, FREE AT LASTBut death is a slave's freedomWe seek the freedom of free menAnd the construction of a world Where Martin Luther King could have lived and preached non-violence "
14 " You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write. "
15 " 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. "
16 " Mistakes are a fact of life: It is the response to the error that counts. "
17 " Nothing is easy to the unwilling. "
18 " 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. "
19 " We love because it's the only true adventure. "
20 " It is interesting that a guy like W.E.B. Du Bois, who actually did very little, I should imagine, with his hands, wrote about "I am the smoke king." Without the labor, both free and slave, of African Americans this country would still be a wilderness. "
― Nikki Giovanni , Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking At The Harlem Renaissance Through Poems
