If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.
I used to dream militant dreams of taking over america to show these whitefolks how it should be done i used to dream radical dreams of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers of correct analysis i even used to think that i'd be the one to stop the riot and negotiate the peace then i awoke & dug that if i dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she's natural i would have a revolution.
There are things you stand up for because it’s right.
Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.
Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.
The only advice [for new writers and poets] I can offer is to be yourself: not the self someone else wants you to be, but the self you are. Enjoy yourself and your life. But most of all travel and eat. That's how we learn.
Storytelling is how history is passed. It's what our ancestors did, it's what everybody's done. It has to come back into a story because otherwise, it's stuck in this book and it's boring and it's academic and I'm not against intelligence and I'm not against education, I don't want to be misunderstood, but we have tell the stories to our young people a little bit early and history gives us a lot of things.
We must invest in tomorrow. And pay our teachers for teaching as we pay our coaches for coaching.
Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
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.
We are better than we think and not yet what we want to be.
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.
Who I am really keeps surprising me.
Nina Simone's music is incredibly honest. That's like saying, "Why does Jesus' word still stay around?" It's incredibly honest and it's good.
White people really deal more with God and black people with Jesus.
Writers ... I think ... live on that fine line between insanity and genius.
I would put books on par with chocolate, because a good book is delicious.
I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.
There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.
I am so hip even my errors are correct
Once you know who you are, you don't have to worry anymore.
War is not a jobs program.
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.
I don't have a life-style, I have a life.
Everybody that loves freedom loves Harriet Tubman because she was determined not only to be free, but to make free as many people as she could.
VISIBILITY - You've got to find a way to make people know you're there
Hip-hop is a cultural expression - it's embracing.
You have to use what you have in order to get what you need and the people can not be rich unless somebody is rich. The Hip-Hop generation has carried more people with it than any other enterprise Black Americans have had.
Poems don't have to rhyme... Poems are about beauty and emotion; in other words poems are about feelings.
We are less lonely when we connect. Art is connection.
Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.
If everybody became a poet the world would be much better. We would all read to each other.
I think we're always in love. It's that simple. And it's important to remember that love doesn't have anything to do with sex. It's two different things. Being in love is the happy part. I was teasing my gentleman, "We know that you're in love when you cook for us." It's true. When men cook for you, they're in love.
It is not who you attend school with but who controls the school you attend.
I am a huge fan of the Black woman. I never hesitate to recommend her when times are bad or things go wrong.
I’ve not learned the acceptable way of saying you fascinate me...I’ve not even learned how to say I like you without frightening people away-
The only way you can grow is to let yourself make mistakes and create contradictions. As we learn new things, some of our old attitudes will change.
There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.
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
i hope i die warmed by the life that i tried to live
America may not be the best nation on earth, but it has conceived loftier ideals and dreamed higher dreams than any other nation. America is a heterogeneous nation of many different people of different races, religions, and creeds. Should this experiment go forth and prosper, we will have offered humans a new way to look at life; should it fail, we will simply go the way of all failed civilizations.
You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts.
My dream is a red dress Above my knees High-heel red sandals And me coming over the top The music booming Hi Howie I will say With a lovely smile I don't want to play the game I want to be it.
I think life is cotton candy on a rainy day. For those who grew up with cotton candy the old-fashioned way, it is very delicate. Pre-made cotton candy that has preservatives is not nearly as good or true. True cotton candy is sugar, color, and air and it melts very quickly. That was the metaphor - it can't be preserved, it can't be put aside, it can't be banked. It has to be experienced, like life.
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.
Daddy says the world is a drum tight and hard and I told him I'm gonna beat out my own rhythm.
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.'
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.
I always loved English because whatever human beings are, we are storytellers. It is our stories that give a light to the future. When I went to college I became a history major because history is such a wonderful story of who we think we are. English is much more a story of who we really are.
[My] Books are like puppies and children: you love each one for different reasons. I don't actually have a favorite because, if I were honest, I'm always more excited about what is coming.
Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes.
We love because it's the only true adventure.
We obviously need the truth. We're living in a country of lies.
Now, everything I do, I do because I want to. And I believe the best is yet to come.
It's really just interesting to ask: why not? And see where that takes me.
We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.
Poetry is the most informative of all of the arts because everything comes down to poetry. No matter what it is we are describing, ultimately we use either a metaphor; or we say "that's poetry in motion." You drink a glass of wine and say, "that's poetry in a bottle." Everything is poetry, so I think we come down to emotional information. And that's what poetry conveys.
I wish that she had had a black loon because I don't think that Nina [Simone] did. I have always had - I've been very fortunate - a group of little old ladies that I love and who love me, and who turned and to whom I turn at different times.
I appreciate and enjoy my age.
I’m a big fan of history—applying the lessons as well as the joys and sadness. If we pay attention, we would see how we affect each other. In terms of time, we are not that far from one another. If we were to look back a century, it would seem like a long time; but, if we look at it by decades then it’s only 10 years, and by generations it’s only five.
Schools should be integrated by race and by class.
Everyone understands that love comes in many different packages and is used in many different ways. You cannot love beyond your years, nor can you fail to love beneath them... In other words, I think you get the love you need when you open your heart.
I am honest; I try to be truthful. I like people and wish us well. We are not always deserving of our own best wishes.
If you're creating a slave situation, you would almost never bring women. And if we look at Slavery for example, we look at the Greeks and the Romans, right? It was always men. They never brought any women. Because women carry the seeds of the revolution, right? And if you have the men by themselves, then you can do what the French did with the Blackfeet, which is breed them out.
We have a world to conquer...one person at a time...starting with ourselves.
go barefoot and be warm all the time not only when you go to bed and sleep
School buildings should be opened and used twenty four hours a day.
the world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by.
If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.
If I could come back as anything - I'd be a bird, first, but definitely the command key is my second choice.
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 can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.
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.
Nothing improves your writing, I think, as much as your keeping writing.
What's the difference between dragging a black man behind a truck in Jasper, Texas, and beating a white boy to death in Wyoming because he's gay?
We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.
I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )
In the name of peace They waged the wars ain't they got no shame
All systems require myths for their longevity.
I appreciate my my sleep In sleep my conversation is witty My home is dusted My office work is up to date The dog is even well behaved And food is on the table on time But then when I'm asleep I don't have you to clutter and confuse My hungry heart
you know a person is having a severe personality crisis if you see a high school class ring on a finger beyond the first semester in college. Male or female. It's a big sign saying nothing has mattered to my life since senior year.
Deal with yourself as a individual, worthy of respect and make everyone else deal with you the same way.
Libraries...house our dreams.
I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops.
A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.
Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
Violence is like money in the bank; it's only helpful if you don't have to use it.
Rage is to writers what water is to fish.
The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.
Life is a marvelous, transitory adventure.
Who I really am keeps surprising me.
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
Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.
Black love is black wealth
If 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 want
Writing is a conversation with reading; a dialogue with thinking. All conversations with older people contain repetition. Some of the ideas mean a lot to me, just interesting, so I both embrace and attack the ideas because I found them, well, delightful.
If you are sitting there waiting for someone to tell you how wonderful you are, you'll never get anything done. Women need to get over being women. I'm tired of that socialization of women; that we are always supposed to be sitting around pleasing somebody.
Follow your image as far as you can no matter how useless you think it is. Push yourself.
A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die.
Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.
You do what you can with what you have. You have to work the edges whatever they are. The main thing is keeping your integrity.
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.
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.
Poets can tell the truth as they see it. It’s the author’s story, the author’s voice.
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.
If you're a writer, the answer to everything is yes.
Show me someone not full of herself and I'll show you a hungry person.
If you were a pure bolt of fire-cutting the skies I'd touch you-risking my life-not because I'm brave or strong, but because I'm fascinated by what the outcome would be.
His headstone said FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST But death is a slave's freedom We seek the freedom of free men And the construction of a world Where Martin Luther King could have lived and preached nonviolence.
We [Black people] have always used our creativity to battle and we're not the only ones. Black Americans are certainly leaders in that simply because we were denied education and dealt with enforced illiteracy. But people seem to always forget that literacy is not the only way of learning things or conveying knowledge.
Sacred cows make very poor gladiators.
I have not tried to tell the people anything. I have shared my views with the people but I have not tried to lead or correct them, assuming they need correction.
There are some things we do simply because the doing is a success.
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.
Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together.
The unwillingness to try is worse than any failure.
When younger, I thought one of the particulars of being "Homo sapiens" was to communicate. I have not learned not to, though I am cautious when I try.
It's not a ladder we're climbing, it's literature we're producing. . . . We cannot possibly leave it to history as a discipline nor to sociology nor science nor economics to tell the story of our people.
She knows who she is, because she knows who she isn't.
We black women are the single group in the West intact. And anybody can see we're pretty shaky. We are, however (all praises), the only group that derives its identity from itself.
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.
No one needs to teach you to be mean; we need to be taught to be kind.
But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.
Mistakes are a fact of life. If you are willing to be wrong then you have earned the right to be right.
BEFORE YOU JUMP OFF A BRIDGE OR HANG YOURSELF OR BE UNHAPPY PLEASE CONSIDER: LIVE FOR YOURSELF; THOSE WHO HATE YOU HAVE NO PURCHASE
I am proud of the hip hop generation. They are good business people and, actually, good people.
