Quotessence
Home / Authors / Naomi Shihab Nye
Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllThinkingWorldPeoplePoetryKnowsLightWritingIfsKindnessLanguage

Famous Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes

“A boy told me if he roller-skated fast enough his loneliness couldn't catch up to him, the best reason I ever heard for trying to be a champion. What I wonder tonight pedaling hard down King William Street is if it translates to bicycles. A victory! To leave your loneliness panting behind you on some street corner while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas, pink petals that have never felt loneliness, no matter how slowly they fell.”

IfsTryingMatterHardReasonEnoughFeltBehindsWonderBoysHeardStreetsLonelinessKingsVictoryCloudsCornersChampionTonightTranslateFloatsBicycleBehind YouPetalsStreet CornersAzaleas
Book:Fuel: Poems
Create image

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in.”

IfsWorldLittlesLongStillsHardStoriesLanguageLonelyWrapsSyllables
Book:I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven
Create image

“like our parents always told us not to like firefighters warn against we're playing games and making the rules up as we go we're matching warmth to warmth starting fires burning wishes into our skin we're hidden holding forbidden lights we're children whose fathers have never taught never touch but we're finding these new flames we smother at the sound of footsteps.”

ChildrenLightFatherGamesWishParentSoundFireTaughtFindingsSkinsStartingBurningFlamesWarmthForbiddenFootstepsFirefighterPlaying GamesMatchingFire Burning
Book:Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets under 25
Create image

“Let me peer out at the world through your lens. (Maybe I'll shudder, or gasp, or tilt my head in a question.) Let me see how your blue is my turquoise and my orange is your gold. Suddenly binary stars, we have startling gravity. Let's compare scintillation - let's share starlight.”

WorldStarsShareGoldLet MeBlueCompareGravityPeersOrangeLensesStarlightBinaryTiltTurquoise
Book:Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets under 25
Create image

“maybe we try too hard to be remembered, waking to the glowing yellow disc in ignorance, swearing that today will be the day, today we will make something of our lives. what if we are so busy searching for worth that we miss the sapphire sky and cackling blackbird. what else is missing? maybe our steps are too straight and our paths too narrow and not overlapping. maybe when they overlap someone in another country lights a candle, a couple resolves their argument, a young man puts down his silver gun and walks away.”

IfsMenTryingCountryHardLightTodayYoungWalksStepsPathOur LivesSkyMissingIgnoranceCoupleGunArgumentBusyRememberedYoung ManSilverWhat IfResolveWakingYellowCandleGlowingSwearingDiscsOverlappingBlackbirdsSapphires
Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
Create image

“I'm like the weather, never really can predict when this rain cloud's gonna burst; when it's the high or it's the low, when you might need a light jacket. Sometimes I'm the slush that sticks to the bottom of your work pants, but I can easily be the melting snowflakes clinging to your long lashes. I know that some people like: sunny and seventy-five, sunny and seventy-five, sunny and seventy-five, but you take me as I am and never forget to pack an umbrella.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsLongI CanSometimesLightMightForgetFiveLowsRainSticksBottomCloudsWeatherNever ForgetTake MePantsPacksSeventiesJacketsSunnyMeltingClingingUmbrellaLashesSnowflakeSlushTake Me As I AmRain CloudsLong Lashes
Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
Create image

“I have always loved the gaps, the spaces between things, as much as the things. I love staring, pondering, mulling, puttering. I love the times when someone or something is late-there's that rich possibility of noticing more, in the meantimePoetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”

SpaceRichPossibilityLateStaringAbundanceGapsPausesPonderingNoticingSpace BetweenThings I LoveShimmerMulling
Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
Create image

“For you who came so far; for you who held out, wearing a black scarf to signify grief; for you who believe true love can find you amidst this atlas of tears linking one town to its own memory of mortar, when it was still a dream to be built and people moved there, believing, and someone with sky and birds in his heart said this would be a good place for a park.”

PeopleBelieveHeartSaidStillsDreamWould BeBlackMemoriesGriefSkyTearsBirdBuiltTownsMovedParksGood PlaceScarvesAtlasMortar
Author:Naomi Shihab Nye
Create image