Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think that too many strangers were in her [Nina Simone's] life, and not enough people that she knew and loved.
Fanatics are, for one thing, boring and, for another, unreliable. They tend to burn out just when you need them.
When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.
I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a responsibility. (U.S. poet and writer, 1943- )
The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.
One stands, in fact, in awe of the Constitution of the United States, though it is an idea and not quite a reality.
God knows it's a sign of a really sick mind to see grown people, adults with responsibilities, wearing class rings.
There is no such thing as writer's block. There is only not enough information. If you can't write, learn something.
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.
Photographers direct the eye toward a particular object. We who write, one hopes, are directing the heart and the soul.
Iife/personality must be taken as a total entity. All of your life is all of your life, and no one incident stands alone.
Most of my books are a two-year project. I tend to follow my heart and my mind and research materials where they take me.
I love you because no two snowflakes are alike, and it is possible, if you stand tippy-toe, to walk between the raindrops.
I hope that, reading 'Rosa,' people will remember their own family and friends and talk about what they did and did not do.
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.
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.
You must be unintimidated by your own thoughts because if you write with someone looking over you shoulder, you'll never write.
Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.
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 try to impress upon my students the importance of looking, listening... paying attention, in other words. You must pay attention.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.'
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.
and sometimes I sit down at my typewriter and I think not of someone cause there isn't anyone to think about and i wonder is it worth it
The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.
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.
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.
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-
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.
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.
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?
I was responding to one thing for the woman I knew, and there's another thing for what did she give, right. She [Nina Simone] was a great teacher.
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.
Baseball is already the world's most tranquil sport. It is probably the only active sport where you are not seriously required to be alive to play.
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.
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.
A lot is yet to be enjoyed. I'd like to stomp grapes for wine. Go to Antarctica. Have dinner with Venus Williams who is the greatest tennis player ever.
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.
We are all either wheels or connectors. Whichever we are we must find truth and balance, which is a bicycle. Trust and balance are also essential to true love.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.
The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said, 'A civilization is judged only in its decline.' That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.