Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.
Nikki GiovanniRead
We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the belief that artistic expression is a fundamental aspect of human nature that should remain wild and free.
Nikki Giovanni's quote emphasizes the importance of the unbridled nature of human creativity and the spirit. It suggests that writing, as a form of art, should not be constrained by conventions or societal expectations, allowing for authenticity and personal truth to emerge in the creative process.
Themes
WritingCreativityHuman SpiritArtistic Expression
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of free expression in art.
More from Nikki Giovanni
All quotes βI 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 GiovanniRead
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 GiovanniRead
Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
Nikki GiovanniRead
Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans. If we canβt drive, we will invent walks and the world will envy the dexterity of our feet. If we canβt 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 GiovanniRead
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.
Nikki GiovanniRead
Similar quotes
If you just write the kinds of stories you think others will want to read, you'll be competing with cartoonists who are far more enthusiastic for that kind of comic than you are, and they'll kick your ass every time.
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It is music that welds spiritual and sensual, that can convey ecstasy free of guilt, faith without dogma, love as homage, and a person at home with nature and the infinite.
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The country that I was coming from, the island I was in, hadn't been written about, really. So I thought that I virtually had it all to myself, including the language that was spoken there, which was a French Creole, and a landscape that is not recorded, really, and the people.
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When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.
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A young man is afraid of his demon and puts his hand over the demon's mouth sometimes and speaks for him. And the things the young man says are very rarely poetry.
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I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
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