You Nikki Giovanni Quotes & Sayings

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 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

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

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

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

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

Go barefoot
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep — Nikki Giovanni

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

There are things you stand up for because it's right. — 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 is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we are describing, ultimately we use either a metaphor; or we say "that's poetry in motion." You drink a glass of wine and say, "that's poetry in a bottle." Everything is poetry, so I think we come down to emotional information. And that's what poetry conveys. — Nikki Giovanni

Once you know who you are, you don't have to worry anymore. — Nikki Giovanni

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

It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend. — Nikki Giovanni

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And you will understand all too soon
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes — Nikki Giovanni

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else. — 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

If you're creating a slave situation, you would almost never bring women. And if we look at Slavery for example, we look at the Greeks and the Romans, right? It was always men. They never brought any women. Because women carry the seeds of the revolution, right? And if you have the men by themselves, then you can do what the French did with the Blackfeet, which is breed them out. — Nikki Giovanni

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you know what you're talking about, or if you feel that you do, the reader will believe you. — Nikki Giovanni

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

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

[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

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

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

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