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.
Nikki Giovanni

Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
Nikki Giovanni

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying.
Nikki Giovanni

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.
Nikki Giovanni

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

If I could come back as anything - I'd be a bird, first, but definitely the command key is my second choice.
Nikki Giovanni

If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.
Nikki Giovanni

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.
Nikki Giovanni

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.
Nikki Giovanni

Sacred cows make very poor gladiators.
Nikki Giovanni

Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.
Nikki Giovanni

There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.
Nikki Giovanni

We eat up artists like there's going to be a famine at the end.
Nikki Giovanni

We love because it's the only true adventure.
Nikki Giovanni

We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.
Nikki Giovanni

When you are skinning your customers, you should leave some skin on to grow again so that you can skin them again.
Nikki Giovanni

White people really deal more with God and black people with Jesus.
Nikki Giovanni

You must invent your own games and teach us old ones how to play.
Nikki Giovanni