Nikki Giovanni is a well-known poet in the United States. Giovanni has written a number of collections of poetry, including her first self-published volume Black Feeling Black Talk (1968) to the New York Times best-selling Bicycles: Love Poems (2009), as well as nonfiction and children’s literature, and a number of videos, including the Emmy-nominated The Nikki Giovanni Show.
Make Me Rain: Poems and Prose (2020), Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid (2013), and The 100 Best African American Poems (as editor) are among her most recent works (2010). Giovanni has taught at Rutgers University, Ohio State University, and Virginia Tech, where she is a University Distinguished Professor, and is a regular lecturer and reader.
Table of Contents
Best Nikki Giovanni Quotes on Poems:
1.
“Deal with yourself as a individual,
worthy of respect and make everyone else
deal with you the same way.”
-Nikki Giovanni
2.
“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
3.
“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 Quotes
4.
“Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
5.
“Some say we are responsible for those we love.
Others know we are responsible for those who love us.“
-Nikki Giovanni
6.
You must invent your own games and
teach us old ones how to play.
-Nikki Giovanni
6.
“She knows who she is,
because she knows who she isn’t.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
7.
“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 Quotes
8.
“The world is not a pleasant place to be
without someone to hold and be held by.”
-Nikki Giovanni
9.
“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
10.
“We love because it’s the only true adventure.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
11.
“[My] Books are like puppies and children:you love each one for different reasons.
I don’t actually have a favourite because,
if I were honest, I’m always more excited
about what is coming.”
-Nikki Giovanni
12.
“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 Quotes
13.
”We can leave it to history
as neither a discipline nor sociology
nor science nor economics
to tell the story of our people.”
-Nikki Giovanni
14.
“If I can’t do what I want to do,
then my job is to not do what I want to do.
It’s not the same thing,
but it’s the best thing I can do.”
-Nikki Giovanni
15.
“Nothing is easy to the unwilling.”
-Nikki Giovanni
16.
“I am feeling and have learned
to distrust those who do not.”
-Nikki Giovanni
17.
“If I can’t do
what I want to do
then my job is to not
do what I don’t want to doIt’s not the same thing
but it’s the best I can doIf I can’t have what i want … then
my job is to want what I’ve got
and be satisfied that at least there
is something more to wantSince I can’t go where I need
to go … then I must … go
where the signs point through always
understanding parallel
movement isn’t lateralWhen I can’t express what i really feel
I practice feeling what I can express
and none of it is equalI know but that’s why mankind
-Nikki Giovanni
alone among the animals
learns to cry.”
18.
“Art is not for the cultivated taste.
It is to cultivate taste.“
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
19.
“Now, everything I do, I do because I want to.
And I believe the best is yet to come.”
-Nikki Giovanni
20.
“Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans.
If we can’t drive, we will invent walks and
the world will envy the dexterity of our feet.
If we can’t have ham, we will boil chitterlings;
If we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers;
If given scraps, we will make quilts;
take away our drums, and we will clap our hands.
We prove the human spirit will prevail.
We will take what we have to make what we need.
We need confidence in our knowledge of who we are.”
-Nikki Giovanni
21.
“If you don’t understand yourself
you don’t understand anybody else.”
-Nikki Giovanni
22.
“We write because we believe the human spirit
cannot be tamed and should not be trained.”
-Nikki Giovanni
23.
“Everything will change.
The only question is
growing up or decaying.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
24.
“When life is a journey,
why would there be a destination?
You go not to go there, but to go there. ”
-Nikki Giovanni
25.
“Ego Tripping
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am badI sat on the throne
drinking nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from my birth pains
created the nile
I am a beautiful womanI gazed on the forest and burned
out the sahara desert
with a packet of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so swift you can’t catch meFor a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever onMy son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men intone my loving name
All praises All praises
I am the one who would saveI sowed diamonds in my back yard
My bowels deliver uranium
the filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious jewels
On a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the earth as I went
The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across three continentsI am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permissionI mean…I…can fly
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
like a bird in the sky…”
26.
“I am proud of the hip hop generation.
They are good business people and,
actually, good people.”
-Nikki Giovanni
27.
“Poetry and music are very good friends.
Like mommies and daddies and strawberries and cream ,
they go together.”
-Nikki Giovanni
28.
”I really feel that life is not about I-could-been.
Life is only about I-try-to-do.
I don’t mind failure, but I can’t imagine
if I will forgive myself if I do not try. ”
-Nikki Giovanni
Best Nikki Giovanni love quotes
29.
“I grow old though pleased with my memories.
The tasks I can no longer complete
Are balanced by the love of the tasks gone past
I offer no apology only this plea:
When I am frayed and strained and drizzle at the end
Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt
That I might keep some child warm
And some old person with no one else to talk to
Will hear my whispers And cuddle near.”
-Nikki Giovanni
30.
“Black love is Black wealth and
they’ll probably talk about my hard childhood and
never understand that all the while
I was quite happy.”
-Nikki Giovanni
31.
“Of the many foundations upon which humans rest,
words are probably the most solid.”
-Nikki Giovanni
32.
“Floating to shore,
riding a low moon,
on a slow cloud.”
-Nikki Giovanni
33.
“For most of my life,
I’ve thought of myself
as pretty cool.”
-Nikki Giovanni
34.
“I spend a lot of time learning
about bird watching.”
-Nikki Giovanni
35.
“Life is a marvellous, transitory adventure.”
-Nikki Giovanni
36.
”There are things you stand for
because it is right.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
37.
“If you’re a writer,
the answer to everything is
“ yes.”
-Nikki Giovanni
38.
“Who I really am keeps surprising me.“
-Nikki Giovanni
39.
“Everything will change.
The only question is
growing up or decaying.”
-Nikki Giovanni
40.
“And mostly we need to pick and
choose Who we listen to
so we follow our own path Yeah
we need to follow our own path.”
-Nikki Giovanni
41.
“And you will understand all too soon
-Nikki Giovanni
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes”
42.
“My work is a part of me and I know it.
I have no reason to try to pick one part of me out from the rest.
I only see my work, or rather I should say
I see my work only telling my part of the human experience.”
-Nikki Giovanni
43.
“We believe ‘Peter Rabbit’ because
Beatrix Potter believes it.
You have to.”
-Nikki Giovanni
44.
“Life is a process where people mix and match,
fall apart and come back together.”
-Nikki Giovanni
45.
”If you’re sitting there waiting for someone
to tell you how amazing you are,
you should never do anything.
Women need to be women.
I’m tired of that socialization of women;
we Always sitting to make someone happy. ”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
46.
“And you will understand all too soon.
That you, my children of battle, are your heroes.”
-Nikki Giovanni
47.
“We obviously need the truth.
We’re living in a country of lies.”
-Nikki Giovanni
48.
“Everything will change.
The only question is
growing up or decaying.”
-Nikki Giovanni
49.
“Floating to shore…
riding a low moon…
on a slow cloud.”
-Nikki Giovanni
50.
“History is wonderful.
We have so much we can learn
if we would quit making ideology out of history,
and just deal with what happened.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
51.
“Black Poetry is not for Black People,
it is for everybody.”
-Nikki Giovanni
52.
“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 Quotes
53.
“I’m just totally fascinated
by people.”
-Nikki Giovanni
54.
“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
55.
“The only way you can grow is
to allow yourself to make mistakes
and create contradictions.
Some of our old attitudes
will change as we learn new things. ”
-Nikki Giovanni
56.
”Nobody needs to teach you to be mean;
We should be taught to be kind. ”
-Nikki Giovanni
57.
“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 one book, maybe three poems.
Writers write from empathy.”
-Nikki Giovanni
58.
“If I could come back as anything ,
I’d be a bird, first,
but definitely the command key is
my second choice.”
-Nikki Giovanni
59.
“As far as you think,
no matter how useless you are,
follow your image.
Push yourself. “
-Nikki Giovanni
60.
“I’m glad I understand that
while language is a gift,
listening is a responsibility. “
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
61.
“Art offers sanctuary to everyone
willing to open their Hearts
as well as their Eyes.”
-Nikki Giovanni
62.
“I think one of the nicest things that
we created as a generation was just the fact that
we could say, ‘Hey, I don’t like white people.'”
-Nikki Giovanni
63.
“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-been.
Life is only about the I-tried-to-do.
I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that
I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.”
-Nikki Giovanni
64.
“The problem with love is not what we feel but
what we wish we felt when we began to feel
we should feel something.”
-Nikki Giovanni
65.
“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 Quotes
66.
“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
67.
“Favorite poems are like favorite children.
We definitely have them but we never tell
as the others would have their feelings hurt.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
68.
“Daddy says the world is
-Nikki Giovanni
a drum-tight and hard
and I told him
I’m gonna beat
out my own rhythm”
69.
“I had a really nice childhood;
I had great parents.
I earned my allowance by washing dishes,
and in the summer I earned my allowance
by working in daddy’s garden.”
-Nikki Giovanni
70.
“We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly,
we are brave enough to bend to cry,
and we are sad enough to know that
we must laugh again.”
-Nikki Giovanni Quotes
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External Reference
Information about Nikki Giovanni
FAQ on Nikki Giovanni love quotes
What is Nikki Giovanni's most famous poem?
Giovanni’s prose poem “Nikki-Rosa,” about her upbringing in a close-knit African American family, first appeared in Black Judgement. The poem broadened her appeal, becoming her most well-known and anthologized work.
What is Nikki Giovanni style of writing?
Style of writing Nikki Giovonni’s writing style is unique. She writes in a dialect that is difficult to understand. She also employs the use of vernacular, which can be difficult for non-native speakers to comprehend if they are not from the same area or ethnicity as she is.
Is Nikki Giovanni African American?
Giovanni is a 71-year-old African-American poet from Cincinnati, Ohio, who grew up in an all-black neighbourhood. Her daily life and surroundings provided her with the opportunity to write literature.