“If you believe in revision you don't have to worry about perfection.”

— Naomi Shihab Nye, Slim Thoughts, Everything Comes Next, 2020

About Naomi Shihab Nye

Born 1952

Palestinian-American poet and author.

“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside, you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.”

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words.”

“Writers, believers in words, could not give up words when the going got rough.”

“When in doubt, tell the truth.”

“I never "worry" about action, but only about inaction.”

“The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear.”

“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”

“You really only know when you know little. Doubt grows with knowledge.”

“Let those flatter who fear; it is not an American art.”