Nikki Giovanni

I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

God knows it's a sign of a really sick mind to see grown people, adults with responsibilities, wearing class rings.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— 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…

— 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

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

— Nikki Giovanni

Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.

— Nikki Giovanni

My work is a part of me and I know it. I have no reason to try to pick one part of…

— Nikki Giovanni

Black Americans should be given credit for finding probably the perfect weapon; the weapon of the song. And that song continues. Most…

— Nikki Giovanni

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…

— Nikki Giovanni

A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked... . We as black people, we as…

— Nikki Giovanni

Being Black and poor is, I think, radically different from being anything else and poor. Poor, to most Blacks, is a state…

— Nikki Giovanni

I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the…

— 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…

— Nikki Giovanni

I think it's the strength of her music, using art to make a statement. I think it really is. It was not…

— Nikki Giovanni

Now, everything I do, I do because I want to. And I believe the best is yet to come.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

The only way you can grow is to let yourself make mistakes and create contradictions. As we learn new things, some of…

— Nikki Giovanni

History is wonderful. We have so much we can learn if we would quit making ideology out of history, and just deal…

— Nikki Giovanni

What's the difference between dragging a black man behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, and beating a white boy to death in…

— 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

I am ever fascinated by the human experience and by, actually, human beings.

— Nikki Giovanni

When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.

— Nikki Giovanni

Mistakes are a fact of life. If you are willing to be wrong then you have earned the right to be right.

— Nikki Giovanni

I try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.

— 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…

— Nikki Giovanni

I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not…

— Nikki Giovanni

Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.

— Nikki Giovanni

I am honest; I try to be truthful. I like people and wish us well. We are not always deserving of our…

— Nikki Giovanni

There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.

— Nikki Giovanni

the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, 'Hey,…

— Nikki Giovanni

Schools should serve breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. No sugared drinks, no fast type food.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni