127 Quotes by Gwendolyn Brooks

Wherever life can grow, it will.It will sprout out,and do the best it can.I give you what I have.You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.How many answers shall be foundin the developing world of my Poem?I don’t know. Nevertheless I put my Poem,which is my life, into your hands, where it will do the best it can.

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

We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.

Poetry is life distilled.

Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.And be it gash or gold it will not comeAgain in this identical disguise.

Say to them,say to the down-keepers,the sun-slappers,the self-soilers,the harmony-hushers,"Even if you are not ready for dayit cannot always be night."You will be right.For that is the hard home-run.Live not for battles won.Live not for the-end-of-the-song.Live in the along.

Writing is a delicious agony.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker.

When you read a poem, you may not get out of it all that the poet put into it, but you are different from the poet. You’re different from everybody else who is going to read the poem, so you should take from it what you need. Use it personally.