Writing Quotes by Nikki Giovanni

Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.

— 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 only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you…

— Nikki Giovanni

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.

— Nikki Giovanni

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

— Nikki Giovanni

Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.

— Nikki Giovanni

My main strength as a young writer was that I had no fear of making mistakes. I knew I would and I…

— Nikki Giovanni

The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.

— Nikki Giovanni

Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. All conversations with older people contain repetition. Some of the ideas mean…

— 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…

— Nikki Giovanni

We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about…

— Nikki Giovanni

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )

— Nikki Giovanni

“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…

— Nikki Giovanni

[To write poems] I think it's important to do research, and research mostly is going to come from books, so all of…

— 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'm an old storyteller. I tell the story. It's about the story.

— 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

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

— Nikki Giovanni

Rage is to writers what water is to fish.

— Nikki Giovanni

Nothing improves your writing, I think, as much as your keeping writing.

— Nikki Giovanni

Language instruction should start in the first grade. Writing, also.

— Nikki Giovanni