Favorite poems are like favorite children. We definitely have them but we never tell as the others would have their feelings hurt.
Nikki GiovanniRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers draw upon their empathy and understanding of others' experiences rather than solely relying on their own limited experiences.
Nikki Giovanni emphasizes the importance of empathy in writing, suggesting that a writer's ability to connect with and understand the experiences of others enriches their work far beyond their personal experiences. By advocating for writing from empathy rather than just personal experience, she highlights the broader emotional and humanistic truths that literature can convey, enabling writers to create more relatable and impactful stories and poems.
Themes
WritingEmpathyExperienceLiteratureCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, to illustrate the importance of understanding diverse experiences.
More from Nikki Giovanni
All quotes →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.
Nikki GiovanniRead
Art is not for the cultivated taste. It is to cultivate taste.
Nikki GiovanniRead
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.
Nikki GiovanniRead
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.
Nikki GiovanniRead
Don't want to be near you for the thoughts we share but the words we never have to speak.
Nikki GiovanniRead
Similar quotes
You have no need to travel anywhere - journey within yourself. Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own light.
RumiRead
Little by little he came to recognize the difference between the spirits that agitated him, one from the enemy and one from God.
Saint IgnatiusRead
I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.
Thomas JeffersonRead
Some things come with their own punishments. Like bedrooms with built-in cupboards. They would all learn more about punishments soon. That they came in different sizes. That some were so big they were like cupboards with built-in bedrooms. You could spend your whole life in them, wandering through dark shelving.
Arundhati RoyRead
Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.
John C. BogleRead
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.
Anne LamottRead