Nikki Giovanni Quotes

Social life is filled with doubts and vain aspirings; solitude, when the imagination is dethroned, is turned to weariness and ennui.

--then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Census figures be damned: If you choose to be alone, you're destined to spend a certain amount of time wondering why.

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.

I wandered off, walking through streets that seemed emptier than ever, thinking that if I didn't stop, if I kept on walking, I wouldn't notice that the world I thought I knew was no longer there.

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself, no light and no land anywhere, cloudcover thick. I try to stay just above the surface, yet I'm already under and living within the ocean.

Just think about it," he said softly. "You can do practically anything. You can have practically everything. And none of it will keep you from being alone." "Shut up shut up...Everybody's alone." He nodded. "But some people learn how to live with it.

I think that if I get into the habit of writing a bit about what happens, or rather doesn't happen, I may lose a little of the sense of isolation and desolation which abides with me. My circumstances allowing of nothing but the ejaculation of one-syllabled reflections, a written monologue by that most interesting being, myself, may have its yet to be discovered consolations.

The lonely become either thoughtful or empty.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.

I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.

I've spent my life alone in a room with a typewriter.

I happen to be pretty productive when I am in jail. When you are in jail, you have to spend more time with yourself.

Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.

Creating is a lonely thing in a lot of ways.

The older I grow, the more I find myself alone.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

Sometimes I get lonely, but it's nice to be alone.

When everyone goes home, you're stuck with yourself.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.

Growing up a lonely only child prepared me for the years of solitude spent as a writer; years spent in the company of people who don't exist, imaginary people you have conversations with. It's a paid form of madness, this writing stuff.

I write to feel alone.