gwendolyn brooks

“ Reading is important - read between the lines. Don't swallow everything. ”

“ Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower steel, stitch, cloud and clout, and drumbeats on the air. ”

“ Graves grow no green that you can use. Remember, greens your color. You are Spring. ”

“ I tell poets that when a line just floats into your head, don't pay attention 'cause it probably has floated into somebody else's head. ”

“ She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves. ”

“ When I start writing a poem, I don't think about models or about what anybody else in the world has done. ”

“ I believe we should all know each other, we human carriers of so many pleasurable differences. ”

“ I know that the Black emphasis must be not against white but for Black. ”

“ A poem doesn't do everything for you. You are supposed to go on with your thinking. ”

“ One reason that cats are happier than people is that they have no newspapers. ”