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Do not desire to fit in. Desire to oblige yourselves to lead.

Gwendolyn Brooks

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Gwendolyn Brooks
Age: 83 †
Born: 1917
Born: June 7
Died: 2000
Died: December 3
Novelist
Poet
Teacher
Writer
Topeka
Kansas
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks
Oblige
Fit
Lead
Leadership
Desire

More quotes by Gwendolyn Brooks

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Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.
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Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
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Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower steel, stitch, cloud and clout, and drumbeats on the air.
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I've always thought of myself as a reporter. When people ask why I don't stop writing, I say, `Look at what's happening in this world. Every day there's something exciting or disturbing to write about.’ With all that's going on, how could I stop?
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at a certain moment in social proceedings, I am on FIRE to leave: I have a leaving-FIT.
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I like the concentration, the crush I like working with language, as others like working with clay, or notes.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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We are each other's magnitude and bond.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Life must be aromatic. There must be scent, somehow there must be some.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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The poetry is myself.
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Be yourself. Don't imitate other poets. You are as important as they are.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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I think it must be lonely to be God. Nobody loves a master. No.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Art hurts. Art urges voyages - and it is easier to stay at home.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Each body has its art.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Reading is important - read between the lines. Don't swallow everything.
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Goodness begins simply with the fact of life itself.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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I know that the Black emphasis must be not against white but FOR Black.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Don't let anyone call you a minority if you're black or Hispanic or belong to some other ethnic group. You're not less than anybody else.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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This is the urgency: Live! and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.
Gwendolyn Brooks
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Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, Even if you are not ready for day it cannot always be night. You will be right. For that is the hard home-run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the-end-of-the-song. Live in the along.
Gwendolyn Brooks