Nikki Grimes Quotes & Sayings

So don't tell me that I can't fit in. My heart beats like a talking drum. — Nikki Grimes

The fact is that you are more comfortable with myth than man. — Nikki Grimes

Is there more to me?
Sure. Kids yell 'albino boy.'
I don't turn around.
Choose the name you answer to.
No one can do that but you. — Nikki Grimes

I'm an artist ... The difference is that I don't tell anybody. I refuse to give them new reasons to laugh at me. — Nikki Grimes

You have to take people one at a time, check out what's in their head and heart before you judge. — Nikki Grimes

Round still, but that's fine.
Feeling good outside and in.
Maybe I'm not thin,
but skinny isn't perfect.
The perfect size is happy. — Nikki Grimes

Forget who I really am, who I really want to be. — Nikki Grimes

Originally I had planned to write just a couple of children's books and then, return the focus on adult literature. A funny thing happened along the way - I kept having new ideas, and then I looked up one day, and 30 years had passed! — Nikki Grimes

I'd pretend their words were water and let them roll off my back. Now, I'm nobody's duck, and their words stung a whole lot more than water. — Nikki Grimes

Choose whatever box you like, Mike. Just don't put me in one, son. Believe me, I won't fit. — Nikki Grimes

I do like Manny,
crank up the inside volume,
listen to my dreams
as I walk through the school halls,
I choose what words to let in. — Nikki Grimes

In one sense, the stories I read betrayed me. Too few gave me back my mirror image. Fewer still spoke to, or acknowledged, the existence of the problems I faced as a black foster child from a dysfunctional and badly broken home. — Nikki Grimes

In 'Out of the Dark,' I'm talking about my own life. I'm not talking as a character or speaking as a character. I was not as free as when I write fiction. — Nikki Grimes

Stories are breadcrumbs.
Just follow the trail of books
and you will find me
lost among the galaxies
of scorched stars and ships to Mars. — Nikki Grimes

Son, don't mind what's missing. Count allthat's free: friendship, laughter, all thelove your heart can carry, and time -- count time. — Nikki Grimes

Jealousy is a waste of energy...focus on what I have, not what I don't. — Nikki Grimes

I spent many hours ensconced in the local library, reading - nay, devouring - book after book after book. Books were my soul's delight. — Nikki Grimes

Only the wind shatters the silence. I have been here before choking in solitude. — Nikki Grimes

The foster home they were leaving was no place to be. The mother, Mrs. Boone, slapped Paris around every time her real daughter did something that called for punishment....After each beating, the daughter, Lisa, would swear she had no clue how her mama got the mistaken notion that Paris was the one who'd smashed a favorite vase, or stained the kitchen tablecloth, or whatever. My name is Paris, not Stupid, Paris would say to herself. — Nikki Grimes

The day she clips her way out of her cocoon, the only sound she plans to hear is a deafening cheer. — Nikki Grimes

Love is not me being who you want. Your definition is a whirlpool trying to suck me in and I'm drowning. Don't you see?...It's time...Time you stop telling me who to be, how to live. This is my portrait. You chose your canvas. Let me choose mine. — Nikki Grimes

If a dream is in your heart, you never lose it. — Nikki Grimes

Do something about it, or shut up. — Nikki Grimes

He'll never do it again,' she swears, but he will because she'll let him. Now me? I've got no use for imitation love that packs a punch. — Nikki Grimes

I woke up this morning exhausted from hiding the me of me. So I stand here confiding there's more to Devon than jump shot and rim. I'm more than tall and lengthy of limb. I dare you to peep behind these eyes, discover the poet in tough-guy disguise. Don't call me Jump Shot. My name is surprise. — Nikki Grimes

Look around. Take the tour. Fear hangs on the wall and shame sometimes. Emotional dislocation too. But I am brave in my admission. Are you? When no one is looking, I check to see if anyone seems as scared as me, or lonely, or shy, or insecure. Is it just me? I'm not so sure. Is your heart an onion too? Show me yours, I'll show you mine we used to say. Your turn. Peel away. — Nikki Grimes

Do friends make better mirrors? — Nikki Grimes

It seemed uncanny that words, spread across a page just so, had the power to transport me to another time or place. But they could. — Nikki Grimes

The lack of goodness in the young gun's heart was oxygen to the fire, and so he burned for a good long while before I woke. The dream stoked my faith in the judgment and justice that will come someday or this afternoon soon. I turn up the collar of my white robe, relieved to know that God's got me covered 'cause I'm good, but not that good. — Nikki Grimes

The crashing sound of years lost shattered in her ears, and new fears emerged from the looking glass. Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever sing again. — Nikki Grimes

There's something about a blank page that makes me tingle. — Nikki Grimes

Ready or not, I peer into your soul and dive deep... Your eyes don't like what I see. You don't want to be me. So you curse and smash the mirror which gets you what? A bit of blood , a handful of glass splinters, another source of pain. — Nikki Grimes

For I am coconut / and the heart of me / is sweeter / than you know. — Nikki Grimes

The perfect size is happy" -Garvey — Nikki Grimes

Something about your life always makes its way into your stories. That's just the nature of the beast. — Nikki Grimes

At the edge of heartbreak, we both take a leap into the unknown...That's when we see it, a buoy callled friendship. — Nikki Grimes