Gwendolyn Brooks Quotes - Page 2

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I think there are things for all of us to do as long as we're here and we're healthy.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Happiness, Inspiring, Success

90 Copy quote
What I'm fighting for now in my work... for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Fighting, Expression, Taverns

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.107, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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

Gwendolyn Brooks

Moments, Learning To Love

Gwendolyn Brooks (1971). “The world of Gwendolyn Brooks”, Harpercollins

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Writing is a delicious agony.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Writing, Agony, Delicious

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What, what am I to do with all of this life?

Gwendolyn Brooks

This Life

Gwendolyn Brooks (1971). “The world of Gwendolyn Brooks”, Harpercollins

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It is brave to be involved

Gwendolyn Brooks

Courage, Justice, Brave

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.57, Library of America

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Each body has its art.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Art, Healing, Body

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.46, Library of America

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I felt that I had to write. Even if I had never been published, I knew that I would go on writing, enjoying it and experiencing the challenge.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Writing, Challenges, Goes On

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Art is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Art, World, Materials

"A Capsule Course in Black Poetry Writing". Book by Gwendolyn Brooks, 1975.

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I've always thought of myself as a reporter. When people ask why I don't stop writing, I say, `Look at what's happening in this world. Every day there's something exciting or disturbing to write about.’ With all that's going on, how could I stop?

Gwendolyn Brooks

Writing, People, World

26 Copy quote
We are each other's magnitude and bond.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Ties, Wedding Toast, Bridal Shower

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.129, Library of America

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We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Real, School, June

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.19, Library of America

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The poetry is myself.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Poetry Is

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I am an ordinary human being who is impelled to write poetry. ... I still do feel that a poet has a duty to words, and that words can do wonderful things, and it's too bad to just let them lie there without doing anything with and for them.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Lying, Writing, Ordinary

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Goodness begins simply with the fact of life itself.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Facts, Goodness, Facts Of Life

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I know that the Black emphasis must be not against white but FOR Black.

Gwendolyn Brooks

White, Racism, Black

Gwendolyn Brooks (1996). “Report from part two”, Third World Pr

47 Copy quote
First fight. Then fiddle.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Fighting, Firsts, Fiddle

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.102, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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A writer should get as much education as possible, but just going to school is not enough; if it were, all owners of doctorates would be inspired writers.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Education, School, Writing

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.25, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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The civil rights situation is like a pregnancy. It will get worse, I believe, before it gets better. What the usual pregnancy comes to is a decent baby. That is what we all hope will be the end product of this stress. It is customary, at the end of a pregnancy, to have for your pains a decent baby.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Baby, Pain, Stress

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.18, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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When white and black meet today, sometimes there is a ready understanding that there has been an encounter between two human beings. But often there is only, or chiefly, an awareness that Two Colors are in the room.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Color, Two, White

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.18, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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People like definite decisions, / Tidy answers, all the little ravelings / Snipped off, the lint removed, they / Hop happily among their roughs / Calling what they can't clutch insanity / Or saintliness.

Gwendolyn Brooks

People, Decision, Insanity

24 Copy quote
My last defense / Is the present tense.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Live In The Moment, Lasts, Defense

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.81, Library of America

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... sometimes you have to deal / Devilishly with drowning men in order to swim them to shore.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Men, Order, Swim

Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). “The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.40, Library of America

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What shall I give my children? who are poor, / Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land...

Gwendolyn Brooks

Children, Land, Giving

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.49, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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I like the concentration, the crush; I like working with language, as others like working with clay, or notes.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Crush, Clay, Language

Gwendolyn Brooks, Gloria Jean Wade Gayles (2003). “Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks”, p.25, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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Born: June 7, 1917
Died: December 3, 2000
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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