Gwendolyn Brooks Quotes

"If
you scream, you're marked "insane."
But silence is a place in which to scream!"

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

Live not for Battles Won.
Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.
Live in the along.

Be careful what you swallow. Chew!

Poetry is life distilled. –

As you get older, you find that often the wheat, disentangling itself from the chaff, comes out to meet you.

Very early in life I became fascinated with the wonders language can achieve. And I began playing with words.

To create - a role, a poem, picture, music, a rapture in stone: great. But not for her.
What she wanted was to donate to the world a good Maud Martha. That was the offering, the bit of art, that could not come from any other.
She would polish and hone that.

Each body has its art...

It is lonesome, yes. For we are the last of the loud. Nevertheless, live. Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.

I pass you my Poem! — to tell you we are all vulnerable — the midget, the Mighty, the richest, the poor. Men, women, children, and trees. I am vulnerable.

Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

Think of sweet and chocolate,
Left to folly or to fate,
Whom the higher gods forgot,
Whom the lower gods berate;
Physical and underfed
Fancying on the featherbed
What was never and is not.

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