We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.
AMANDA GORMANWriting wasn’t just a form of expression. It was a form of pathology by embarking on spoken word over and over and over again and reciting my poems.
More Amanda Gorman Quotes
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I think it made me all that much stronger of a writer when you have to teach yourself how to say words from scratch.
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To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece.
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Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for.
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No matter how you say it, the hill we climb is a hill we climb together.
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Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.
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As a young black woman, I notice at times in the mainstream media framing of the ‘me too’ movement you see a white female face or a white male face, and that type of questioning and interrogation needs to happen.
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The fight isn’t over – it’s just begun. It’s time to suit up for a battle that might determine the war.
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I don’t want it to be something that becomes a cage, where to be a successful Black girl, you have to be Amanda Gorman and go to Harvard. I want someone to eventually disrupt the model I have established.
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Whenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head.
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One of my delays was in speech and speech pronunciation, and also the auditory processing issue just means I really struggle as an auditory learner.
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We know. We believe. And we act, because it is our civic duty.
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I was born early, along with my twin, and a lot of times, for infants, that can lead to learning delays.
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It wasn’t until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I just always loved writing, period.
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Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.
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When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.
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What contributed to my writing early on is how my mom encouraged it. She kept the TV off because she wanted my siblings and I to be engaged and active. So we made forts, put on plays, musicals, and I wrote like crazy.
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I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the black ‘hood met black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands.
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It was so incredible meeting Lady Gaga. I mean I’m gaga for Gaga, literally. We kind of just each flew to each other like magnets after the ceremony ended and we were both just crying and hugging.
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Poetry is interesting because not everyone is going to become a great poet, but anyone can be, and anyone can enjoy poetry, and it’s this openness, this accessibility of poetry that makes it the language of people.
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I try to approach reading in front of millions of people as I would reading in somebody’s living room.
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I did a lot of sitting back and thinking about what I wanted for myself and what I wanted for my country: more unity, more support for the arts and more opportunities for young writers from marginalized groups.
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If a woman doesn’t give herself permission, who will?
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As a public poet, people often don’t see the reality of my life.
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My Instagram doesn’t cover my insecurities, my lack of self-confidence, that week I spent crying, there’s a question of whether I should be sharing that online.
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When you are learning through poetry how to speak English, it lends to a great understanding of sound, of pitch, of pronunciation, so I think of my speech impediment not as a weakness or a disability, but as one of my greatest strengths.
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Your daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.
AMANDA GORMAN