Quotes from Nikki Grimes

Maybe I'm not thin, but skinny isn't perfect. The perfect size is happy.

Choose whatever box you like, Mike. Just don't put me in one, son. Believe me, I won't fit.

Trauma is a memory hog, It gobbles up all available space in the brain, leaves little room to mark daily happenstances, or even routine injuries which are less than life-threatening.

You have to take people one at a time, check out what's in their head and heart before you judge.

Only the wind shatters the silence. I have been here before choking in solitude.

Stories are breadcrumbs. Just follow the trail of books and you will find me lost among the galaxies of scorched stars and ships to Mars.

At the edge of heartbreak, we both take a leap into the unknown...That's when we see it, a buoy callled friendship.

Love is not me being who you want. Your definition is a whirlpool trying to suck me in and I'm drowning. Don't you see?...It's time...Time you stop telling me who to be, how to live. This is my portrait. You chose your canvas. Let me choose mine.

So don't tell me that I can't fit in. My heart beats like a talking drum.

If a dream is in your heart, you never lose it.

Do something about it, or shut up.

Is there more to me? Sure. Kids yell 'albino boy.' I don't turn around. Choose the name you answer to. No one can do that but you.

The fact is that you are more comfortable with myth than man.

He'll never do it again,' she swears, but he will because she'll let him. Now me? I've got no use for imitation love that packs a punch.

Forget who I really am, who I really want to be.

Jealousy is a waste of energy...focus on what I have, not what I don't.

I'd pretend their words were water and let them roll off my back. Now, I'm nobody's duck, and their words stung a whole lot more than water.

The day she clips her way out of her cocoon, the only sound she plans to hear is a deafening cheer.

You laugh, rap my woody shell with wicked whispers shaped like knuckles, then toss me aside. Lucky for me, I don't bruise easily. Besides, you loss is someone else's gain for I am coconut, and the heart of me is sweeter than you know.

MY BLACK ME My father fed me Invisible Man, Native Son, No Longer at Ease, Black Man's Burden, and the more I read, the madder I got, and I already had reason to scream, but my father kept me dreaming of what words I might bring to the world.

I didn't have much in the world, but my fears were my own.

I woke up this morning exhausted from hiding the me of me. So I stand here confiding there's more to Devon than jump shot and rim. I'm more than tall and lengthy of limb. I dare you to peep behind these eyes, discover the poet in tough-guy disguise. Don't call me Jump Shot. My name is surprise.

Look around. Take the tour. Fear hangs on the wall and shame sometimes. Emotional dislocation too. But I am brave in my admission. Are you? When no one is looking, I check to see if anyone seems as scared as me, or lonely, or shy, or insecure. Is it just me? I'm not so sure. Is your heart an onion too? Show me yours, I'll show you mine we used to say. Your turn. Peel away.

The crashing sound of years lost shattered in her ears, and new fears emerged from the looking glass. Sometimes I wonder if she'll ever sing again.