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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.

-Nikki Giovanni

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When Younger, I Thought

Nikki Giovanni

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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.

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Mistakes Are A Fact Of Life. If You Are Willing To Be Wrong Then You Have Earned The Right To Be Right.

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.

Facts Are Only Tools To Gain Control Over Yourself And Other People.

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.

Follow Your Image As Far As You Can No Matter How Useless You Think It Is. Push Yourself.

If You Don't Understand Yourself You Don't Understand Anybody Else.

Poets Can Tell The Truth As They See It. It’s The Author’s Story, The Author’s Voice.

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Some Say We Are Responsible For Those We Love. Others Know We Are Responsible For Those Who Love Us.

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The Poet Can Only Write The Poems; It Takes The Reader To Complete The Meaning.

Educational Progress Is A National Concern; Education Is A Private One.

We Believe 'peter Rabbit' Because Beatrix Potter Believes It. You Have To.

I Spend A Lot Of Time Learning About Bird Watching.

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.

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.

I Don't Have A Life-style, I Have A Life.

I Am Proud Of The Hip Hop Generation. They Are Good Business People And, Actually, Good People.

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Hip-hop Is A Cultural Expression - It's Embracing.

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.

I Hope I Die Warmed By The Life That I Tried To Live

But Nonviolence Was Never For The Oppressor; It Was For The Oppressed.

Poetry Is Music Though, Unfortunately, Not All Music Is Poetry. Because Music Has Other Carriers To Take Its Message - Beats, Lyrics, Singers, Bass Players - Anyone In Music Can Rise To Make A Major Statement But In Poetry There Are Only Words To Do The Work. And They Do Sometimes Have To Sweat.

I Think It's The Strength Of Her Music, Using Art To Make A Statement. I Think It Really Is. It Was Not A Cheap Gift. The Gift Was An Expensive Gift For Nina [simone]. Diamonds Are Expensive. Her Music Was Expensive. She Paid For It, But I Think It's Her Greatest Gift.

There're Two People In The World That Are Not Likeable: A Master And A Slave.

I Always Like Summer Best

Being Black And Poor Is, I Think, Radically Different From Being Anything Else And Poor. Poor, To Most Blacks, Is A State Of Mind. Those Who Accept It Are Poor; Those Who Struggle Are Middle Class.

I'm An Old Storyteller. I Tell The Story. It's About The Story.

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.

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.

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Who I Really Am Keeps Surprising Me.

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.

All Systems Require Myths For Their Longevity.

[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.

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

School Should Be Eleven Months Of The Year.

We All Have Our Muses. My Grandmother And My Mother Are The People I Write For. I'll Never Have To Worry About Who Buys My Work, Or Who Likes It, And Who Doesn't. The People Who I Want To Be Proud Of Me Already Are.

The World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be Without Someone To Hold And Be Held By.

Violence Is Like Money In The Bank; It's Only Helpful If You Don't Have To Use It.

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.

Art Is Not For The Cultivated Taste. It Is To Cultivate Taste.

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.

In Law School They Teach You That Everything Is A Contract; Well, In Poetry Everything Is A Narrative.

I Used To Go Up To Her House. She Lived Upstate [in New York] And I Lived In Manhattan; You're Living In A Lot Of Noise And My Career Was Being Built. For Me To Spend Time With Nina [simone] Is To Spend A Lot Of Quiet Time.

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

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.

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.

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 Must Invent Your Own Games And Teach Us Old Ones How To Play.

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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.

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There Are Things You Stand Up For Because It’s Right.

[to Become A Poet] The Most Important Thing Is To Pay Attention. The Next Would Probably Be To Read; It's So Important To Pay Attention. It Keeps You From Being Bored, And I Might Add It Keeps You From Being Boorish.

One Stands, In Fact, In Awe Of The Constitution Of The United States, Though It Is An Idea And Not Quite A Reality.

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.

I Move On Feeling And Have Learned To Distrust Those Who Don't.

Floating To Shore...riding A Low Moon...on A Slow Cloud.

We Have A World To Conquer...one Person At A Time...starting With Ourselves.

If Culture Was A Railroad, I Can See The Tracks Running From The Spirituals To The Hip Hop Nation.

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We Obviously Need The Truth. We're Living In A Country Of Lies.

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Schools Should Serve Breakfast, Lunch And An Afternoon Snack. No Sugared Drinks, No Fast Type Food.

Visibility - You've Got To Find A Way To Make People Know You're There

Don't Want To Be Near You For The Thoughts We Share But The Words We Never Have To Speak.

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Words Of Wisdom

We Write Because We Believe The Human Spirit Cannot Be Tamed And Should Not Be Trained.

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Favorite Poems Are Like Favorite Children. We Definitely Have Them But We Never Tell As The Others Would Have Their Feelings Hurt.

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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.

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.

I Appreciate And Enjoy My Age.

And Like An Unfaithful Mate, Once A Car Has Let You Down You Never Sort Of Trust It Again.

I Do Not Understand Why Any Poet Or Writer Would Run For Office; That's A Different Sense Of Who You Are. I'm Just A Poet. I Am As Truthful As I Can Be. That Makes Me An Artist. I Heed The People; I Do Not Lead The People.

For Most Of My Life, I've Thought Of Myself As Pretty Cool.

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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.

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The Future Is In Good Hands.

Everything Will Change. The Only Question Is Growing Up Or Decaying.

Art Offers Sanctuary To Everyone Willing To Open Their Hearts As Well As Their Eyes.

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It Is Not Who You Attend School With But Who Controls The School You Attend.

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.

It's Really Just Interesting To Ask: Why Not? And See Where That Takes Me.

You're Only As Good As Your Last Book.

I Am Ever Fascinated By The Human Experience And By, Actually, Human Beings.

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I Just Think She Was A Wonderful Woman. What I Think Of When I Think Of Nina [simone] Is Someone That I Could Relate To, Who Didn't Want Anything From Me, That Could Relate To Me Because I Didn't Want Anything From Her. It Was Nice.

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.

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.

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.

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There Are Some Things We Do Simply Because The Doing Is A Success.

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We Eat Up Artists Like There's Going To Be A Famine At The End.

You Must Be Unintimidated By Your Own Thoughts Because If You Write With Someone Looking Over You Shoulder, You'll Never Write.

And You Will Understand All Too Soon That You, My Children Of Battle, Are Your Heroes

I Would Put Books On Par With Chocolate, Because A Good Book Is Delicious.

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

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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

Photographers Direct The Eye Toward A Particular Object. We Who Write, One Hopes, Are Directing The Heart And The Soul.

I'm Glad I Understand That While Language Is A Gift, Listening Is A Responsibility. (u.s. Poet And Writer, 1943- )

We Are Better Than We Think And Not Yet What We Want To Be.

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?

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.

Life Is A Process Where People Mix And Match, Fall Apart And Come Back Together.

Iife/personality Must Be Taken As A Total Entity. All Of Your Life Is All Of Your Life, And No One Incident Stands Alone.

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.

Show Me Someone Not Full Of Herself And I'll Show You A Hungry Person.

She Knows Who She Is, Because She Knows Who She Isn't.

I Try To Impress Upon My Students The Importance Of Looking, Listening... Paying Attention, In Other Words. You Must Pay Attention.

If I Could Come Back As Anything - I'd Be A Bird, First, But Definitely The Command Key Is My Second Choice.

You Must Be Unintimidated By Your Own Thoughts.

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.

The Nature Of Tragedy And Accident Is That We Cannot Predict.

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.

Ever Been Kidnapped By A Poet If I Were A Poet I'd Kidnap You Put You In My Phrases And Meter.

Just As Nature Abhors A Vacuum, Humans Resist Change. Change Will Occur; Vacuums Will Be Filled.

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.

I Prefer Her [nina Simone's] Jazz Period Much More So Than Her Folk Period.

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-

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.

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.

I Hope That, Reading 'rosa,' People Will Remember Their Own Family And Friends And Talk About What They Did And Did Not Do.

Family And Friends

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.

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 Like What They're Doing. I Think They're Doing A Good Job, And I Know That A Lot Of People Are Upset By Them. These Are Great Young Men And Women, And They're Bold, And They Are Saying To America, "something's Going To Change." I'm Very Proud Of Them.

We Just Didn't Put Any Pressure On Each Other, And I Think That Everybody Needs Somebody, And I Didn't Do It To Try To Do It; It's What We [with Nina Simone] Were To Each Other.

Black Americans Should Be Given Credit For Finding Probably The Perfect Weapon; The Weapon Of The Song. And That Song Continues. Most Holocausts Don't, So They Have This Bitterness Left Over. The Phenomenon Of The World, As Far As Black Americans Are Considered, Is That We Are Not A Bitter People.

Death Is A Slave's Freedom.

Sacred Cows Make Very Poor Gladiators.

If Everybody Became A Poet The World Would Be Much Better. We Would All Read To Each Other.

If You're A Writer, The Answer To Everything Is Yes.

I Love You Because No Two Snowflakes Are Alike, And It Is Possible, If You Stand Tippy-toe, To Walk Between The Raindrops.

The Trip To Mars Can Only Be Understood Through Black Americans. I Say, The Trip To Mars Can Only Be Understood Through Black Americans.

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.

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.

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.'

I Am So Hip Even My Errors Are Correct

African American

We Are Less Lonely When We Connect. Art Is Connection.

There Is No Such Thing As Writer's Block. There Is Only Not Enough Information. If You Can't Write, Learn Something.

Black Poetry Is Not For Black People...it Is For Everybody

Schools Should Be Integrated By Race And By Class.

Who I Am Really Keeps Surprising Me.

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

Life Is A Marvelous, Transitory Adventure.

God Knows It's A Sign Of A Really Sick Mind To See Grown People, Adults With Responsibilities, Wearing Class Rings.

Once You Know Who You Are, You Don't Have To Worry Anymore.

Go Barefoot And Be Warm All The Time Not Only When You Go To Bed And Sleep

Writers ... I Think ... Live On That Fine Line Between Insanity And Genius.

Rage Is To Writers What Water Is To Fish.

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.

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 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.

We Love Because It's The Only True Adventure.

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 Think That Too Many Strangers Were In Her [nina Simone's] Life, And Not Enough People That She Knew And Loved.

Nothing Improves Your Writing, I Think, As Much As Your Keeping Writing.

I Am Proud Of The Hip Hop Generation. They Are Good Business People And, Actually, Good People. It's Strange That The Only Time The Major Press Talks About Them Is When Someone Gets Killed Or Does Drugs Or Something; Yet These Are The Same Press People Who Made Heroes Out Of The Mafia And Other Crooks, You Know.

Poetry Is The Most Mistaught Subject In Any School Because We Teach Poetry By Form And Not By Content.

If Now Isn't A Good Time For The Truth I Don't See When We'll Get To It.

Daddy Says The World Is A Drum Tight And Hard And I Told Him I'm Gonna Beat Out My Own Rhythm.

War Is Not A Jobs Program.

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.

A Lot Of People Refuse To Do Things Because They Don't Want To Go Naked... . We As Black People, We As People, We As The Human Species Have Got To Get Used To The Fact We're Not Going To Be Right Most Of The Time, Not Even When Our Intentions Are Good. We've Got To Go Naked And See What Happens.

School Buildings Should Be Opened And Used Twenty Four Hours A Day.

I Am A Huge Fan Of The Black Woman. I Never Hesitate To Recommend Her When Times Are Bad Or Things Go Wrong.

Libraries...house Our Dreams.

Now, Everything I Do, I Do Because I Want To. And I Believe The Best Is Yet To Come.

Best Is Yet To Come

Fanatics Are, For One Thing, Boring And, For Another, Unreliable. They Tend To Burn Out Just When You Need Them.

I Think Speeches And Fruit Should Always Be Fresh.

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.

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.

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.

Young People Coming Up Who Are Having Difficulty With Their So-called Celebrity Need To Get Back Into Their Lives. It's Your Life And You Can't Let The Fact That You Do Something Pretty Good Take Away The Joy Of It.

Poetry And Music Are Very Good Friends. Like Mommies And Daddies And Strawberries And Cream - They Go Together.

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.

In The Name Of Peace They Waged The Wars Ain't They Got No Shame

Black Love Is Black Wealth

Deal With Yourself As A Individual, Worthy Of Respect And Make Everyone Else Deal With You The Same Way.

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.

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