Nayyirah Waheed Quotes

Someone can be madly in love with you and still not be ready. They can love you in a way you have never been loved and still not join you on the bridge. And whatever their reasons you must leave. Because you never ever have to inspire anyone to meet you on the bridge. You never ever have to convince someone to do the work to be ready. There is more extraordinary love, more love that you have never seen, out here in this wide and wild universe. And there is the love that will be ready.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

If someone does not want me it is not the end of the world. But if I do not want me, the world is nothing but endings.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

Desire is the kind of thing thateats youandleaves you starving.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

never trust anyone who says they do not see color. this means to them,you are invisible.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

creativity keeps the world alive, yet, everyday we are asked to be ashamed of honoring it, wanting to live our lives as artists. i’ve carried the shame of being a ‘creative’ since i came to the planet; have been asked to be something different, more, less my whole life. thank spirit, my wisdom is deeper than my shame, and i listened to who i was. i want to say to all the creatives who have been taught to believe who you are is not enough for this world, taught that a life of art will amount to nothing, know that who we are, and what we do is life. when we create, we are creating the world. remember this, and commit.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

the worstthing that ever happenedtothe worldwasthe white man coming across gun powder.–– the end of the world | the beginning of white supremacy

~ Nayyirah Waheed

as a childthere was eitherbooksorpain.i chose books.-how i became a writer

~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am a woman and a poem. – visceral

~ Nayyirah Waheed

there is no healthier drug than creativity.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

if the ocean can calm itself, so can you.we are both salt water mixed with air.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

he was so beautiful because when he held her he was not concerned with ‘being a man.’ ‘being a man’ had nothing to do with this. these flowers pouring from his chest. – weightless

~ Nayyirah Waheed

it is being honest about my painthat makes me invincible.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

the thing you are mostafraid to writewrite that-- advice to young writers

~ Nayyirah Waheed

there is you and you.this is a relationship.this is the most important relationship.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

healingbeginsthe momentyouwant it to

~ Nayyirah Waheed

we are houses eaten by rivers because we do not know their smell.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

my mother gave me islam.my father gave me the god of absence.and here i am.a religion made of myself.

~ Nayyirah Waheed

when you allow that man. to walk through your children. plant his feet. in their veins. hold their voices. necks. bodies. inside his violence. you are no longer a mother. when you give him the key to that door. because you need to be loved by someone. you have seasoned them for the wolf. burned their childhood into a fantasy. it’s going to take a third of their lives. all the courage. from their cells to their hair. to learn the alchemetic formula that turns that kind of betrayal. a demothering. soft. liveable. – before you get that key made

~ Nayyirah Waheed

the rain in this room is low and thickand undressing my heart through the air. – intimacy 

~ Nayyirah Waheed

when you meet that person. a person. one of your soulmates. let the connection. relationship be what it is. it may be five mins. five hours. five days. five months. five years. a lifetime. let it manifest itself, the way it is meant to. it has an organic destiny. this way if it stays or if it leaves, you will be softer from having been loved this authentically. souls come into, return, open, and sweep through your life for a myriad of reasons, let them be who and what they are meant.

~ Nayyirah Waheed