Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSTruth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSIt frightens me to realize that, if I had died before the age of fifty, I would have died a ‘Negro’ fraction.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSExhaust the little moment soon it dies.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSI think there are things for all of us to do as long as we’re here and we’re healthy.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSLife for my child is simple, and is good.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSWhen I start writing a poem, I don’t think about models or about what anybody else in the world has done.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSGoodness begins simply with the fact of life itself.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSWriting is a delicious agony.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSArt hurts. Art urges voyages – and it is easier to stay at home.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSPoetry is life distilled.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSArt is a refining and evocative translation of the materials of the world.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSWhen you use the term minority or minorities in reference to people, you’re telling them that they’re less than somebody else.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSWhen you love a man, he becomes more than a body. His physical limbs expand, and his outline recedes, vanishes. He is rich and sweet and right. He is part of the world, the atmosphere, the blue sky and the blue water.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSThe poetry is myself.
GWENDOLYN BROOKSI 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 BROOKSThere can be no whiter whiteness than this one: An insurance man’s shirt on its morning run.
GWENDOLYN BROOKS