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I think that too many strangers were in her [Nina Simone's] life, and not enough people that she knew and loved.

Nikki Giovanni

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Nikki Giovanni
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: June 7
Poet
Teacher
Writer
Knoxville
Tennessee
Yolande Cornelia Giovanni
Jr
Enough
Many
Think
Thinking
Nina
Life
Strangers
People
Stranger
Loved
Knew

More quotes by Nikki Giovanni

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My main strength as a young writer was that I had no fear of making mistakes. I knew I would and I knew I could and would learn from them.
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Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.
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You're only as good as your last book.
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Who I am really keeps surprising me.
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We must invest in tomorrow. And pay our teachers for teaching as we pay our coaches for coaching.
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[To write poems] I think it's important to do research, and research mostly is going to come from books, so all of your reading is potentially helpful to your poetry.
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We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.
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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.
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I am of the generation of segregation. Black Lives Matter is post. I said today, and I will say all the time, If Nina [Simone] were here, she'd have her Black Lives Matter [T-shirt] on. I think they're great kids. They don't need me or anybody else to tell them what to do.
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We believe 'Peter Rabbit' because Beatrix Potter believes it. You have to.
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We need to make sure our children travel to see things. Not necessarily long distances but at least out of the neighborhood. On a train. A boat. An airplane.
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I'm an old storyteller. I tell the story. It's about the story.
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Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.
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Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.
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We all have our muses. My grandmother and my mother are the people I write for. I'll never have to worry about who buys my work, or who likes it, and who doesn't. The people who I want to be proud of me already are.
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I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
Nikki Giovanni
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I am a huge fan of the Black woman. I never hesitate to recommend her when times are bad or things go wrong.
Nikki Giovanni
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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.
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School should be eleven months of the year.
Nikki Giovanni
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I am totally fascinated by people and our history as I understand and continue to explore it. People have so much to give and so far to go and yet we have given and gone a great distance. It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.
Nikki Giovanni