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.
AMANDA GORMANThat’s kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You’re speaking to everyone, but you don’t also want to speak for everyone.
More Amanda Gorman Quotes
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Your daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.
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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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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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Writing 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.
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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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If a woman doesn’t give herself permission, who will?
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What a day. What a life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
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I close my eyes and I am with this army of young women standing in a line and I imagine us walking forward together.
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I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.
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Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.
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The oration of poetry, I consider to be its own art form and tradition.
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That’s kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You’re speaking to everyone, but you don’t also want to speak for everyone.
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My mom wanted to make sure I was prepared to grow up with Black skin in America.
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Whenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head.
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Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.
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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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One of the most rewarding moments of my career is when I’m speaking to a child who tells me they have the same speech impediment that I had to overcome and that they’re going to keep writing or sharing their voice after hearing my story.
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See the line where the sky meets the sea.
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Poetry is – it’s an art form, but, to me, it’s also a weapon, it’s also an instrument. It’s the ability to make ideas that have been known, felt and said. And that’s a real, I think, type of duty for the poet.
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We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.
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When you’re someone who’s lived a life where certain resources were scarce, you always feel like abundance is forbidden fruit.
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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 have to interweave my poetry with purpose. For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.
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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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I am my own best mirror.
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