27 Quotes by Nikki Grimes

In one sense, the stories I read betrayed me. Too few gave me back my mirror image. Fewer still spoke to, or acknowledged, the existence of the problems I faced as a black foster child from a dysfunctional and badly broken home.

I spent many hours ensconced in the local library, reading - nay, devouring - book after book after book. Books were my soul's delight.

Originally I had planned to write just a couple of children's books and then, return the focus on adult literature. A funny thing happened along the way - I kept having new ideas, and then I looked up one day, and 30 years had passed!

It seemed uncanny that words, spread across a page just so, had the power to transport me to another time or place. But they could.

In 'Out of the Dark,' I'm talking about my own life. I'm not talking as a character or speaking as a character. I was not as free as when I write fiction.

There's something about a blank page that makes me tingle.

For I am coconut / and the heart of me / is sweeter / than you know.

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.

I'm an artist...The difference is that I don't tell anybody. I refuse to give them new reasons to laugh at me.