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Quote by Nikki Giovanni

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My House

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Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni is an American poet, writer, and activist, born on June 7, 1943. She is renowned for her poignant and evocative poetry that frequently tackles social and political issues. Giovanni's writing has had a profound impact on the African American literary community and beyond, earning her numerous awards and accolades for her literary contributions. more

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“Oh, oh!' said Renzo, 'you are a poet!' To comprehend this witticism of poor Renzo, it is necessary to be informed, that in the eyes of the vulgar of Milan, and more particularly in its environs, the name of poet did not signify, as among cultivated people, a sublime genius, an inhabitant of Pindus, a pupil of the muses, but a whimsicality and eccentricity in discourse and conduct, which had more of singularity than sense; and an absurd wresting of words from their legitimate signification.”

“Writing is a form of painting with words. Artists of every genre seek to convey every aspect of being, but some internal scenery proves impossible to recreate with word pictures. Writers and poets, past and present, seem to be obsessed with what it means to die, and perpetually haunted by actively imagining how to destroy their own being. Perchance this morbid fascination with eternal silence is because death is the one event that remains outside their ability ever accurately to paint with words.”