You Nikki Giovanni Quotes

#1. You know a person is having a severe personality crisis if you see a high school class ring on a finger beyond the first semester in college. Male or female. It's a big sign saying nothing has mattered to my life since senior year.

Nikki Giovanni

#2. Young people coming up who are having difficulty with their so-called celebrity need to get back into their lives. It's your life and you can't let the fact that you do something pretty good take away the joy of it.

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#5. There are things you stand up for because it's right.

Nikki Giovanni

#6. Violence is like money in the bank; it's only helpful if you don't have to use it.

Nikki Giovanni

#7. we used to talk all night
and do things alone together

and i've begun
(as a reaction to a feeling)
to balance
the pleasure of loneliness
against the pain
of loving you

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#9. Go barefoot
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep

Nikki Giovanni

#10. 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

#11. 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

#12. 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.

Nikki Giovanni

#13. 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

#14. If you know what you're talking about, or if you feel that you do, the reader will believe you.

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#16. We believe 'Peter Rabbit' because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to.

Nikki Giovanni

#17. 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.

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#19. BEFORE YOU JUMP OFF A BRIDGE OR HANG YOURSELF OR BE UNHAPPY PLEASE CONSIDER: LIVE FOR YOURSELF; THOSE WHO HATE YOU HAVE NO PURCHASE

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#22. 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

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

Nikki Giovanni

#24. Grant me Love implies
not desire but
Commitment
Commitment accepts Challenge
Challenge embraces Theory
And you and I will get Reason: A way to explore
past actions
and
future dreams

Nikki Giovanni

#25. 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

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

Nikki Giovanni

#27. 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.

Nikki Giovanni

#28. 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.

Nikki Giovanni

#29. And i've begun
(as a reaction to a feeling)
to balance
the pleasure of loneliness
against the pain
of loving you
from Balances

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#31. If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.

Nikki Giovanni

#32. [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.

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#34. 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.

Nikki Giovanni

#35. 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

#36. 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

#37. If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

Nikki Giovanni

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

Nikki Giovanni

#39. You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.

Nikki Giovanni

#40. 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

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

Nikki Giovanni

#42. 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."

Nikki Giovanni

#43. 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

#44. And you will understand all too soon
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes

Nikki Giovanni

#45. 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

#46. 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

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

Nikki Giovanni

#48. 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

#49. 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

#50. 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