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As a writer, one has to be willing to be wrong, willing to make mistakes. I’ve put everything on the table and accepted the fact that I may come up short. And, if (or when) I do, that’s okay.

— Nikki Giovanni Nikki Giovanni: Interview (2008)

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More quotes by Nikki Giovanni

The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader.

The Authority of a Writer (2024)

Poetry is the culture of a people. We are poets even when we don’t write poems; just look at our life, our rhythms, our tenderness, our signifying, our sermons and our songs.

I'm a big fan of the black woman and so I'm always looking at aspects of the black woman--what she's doing and how she does it.

The Authority of a Writer (2024)

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…

Nikki Giovanni: Interview (2008)

If I were advising someone on a writing career, the deal is this: write. If you get it published, good. If somebody pays you, better, because you have to eat, but the deal is you have to write.

The Authority of a Writer (2024)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Nikki Giovanni (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.