Ordinary Hazards Quotes

“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.”
― Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards

“I didn't have much in the world, but my fears were my own.”
― Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards

“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.”
― Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards

“this writing thing
was some kind of magic trick
I didn't yet understand,
except for this:
Magicians rarely share
their secrets.”
― Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards

“memoir is a tricky business. Unlike an autobiography, a memoir’s focus is on truth, not fact. For example, two or more people can share the exact same experience, and yet come away with radically different memories of that experience. Is one person’s memory right and the other wrong? No. The memory of each person is true for him or her. A memoir, then, is a very personal, inherently subjective story recalling incidents that have shaped and impacted one person’s life. Even at that, a memoir, again unlike an autobiography, tells the story of a fragment of a life, not the whole of it. Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir is a snippet of my story, and it is my story, alone.”
― Nikki Grimes, Ordinary Hazards