Maya Angelou Quotes And Sayings

Every December, I Host A Tree-trimming Party. I Serve Chili With Cornbread And Lots Of Good Wine. It's A Wonderful Party, And It Shows How Much Adults Like To Play.

I Created Myself. I Have Taught Myself So Much.

I'm Happy To Be A Writer - Of Prose, Poetry, Every Kind Of Writing. Every Person In The World Who Isn't A Recluse, Hermit Or Mute Uses Words. I Know Of No Other Art Form That We Always Use.

Whenever I Want To Laugh, I Read A Wonderful Book, 'Children's Letters To God.' You Can Open It Anywhere. One I Read Recently Said, 'Dear God, Thank You For The Baby Brother, But What I Prayed For Was A Puppy.'

We Are Braver And Wiser Because They Existed, Those Strong Women And Strong Men... We Are Who We Are Because They Were Who They Were. It's Wise To Know Where You Come From, Who Called Your Name.

Prejudice Is A Burden That Confuses The Past, Threatens The Future And Renders The Present Inaccessible.

Perhaps Travel Cannot Prevent Bigotry, But By Demonstrating That All Peoples Cry, Laugh, Eat, Worry, And Die, It Can Introduce The Idea That If We Try And Understand Each Other, We May Even Become Friends.

While I Know Myself As A Creation Of God, I Am Also Obligated To Realize And Remember That Everyone Else And Everything Else Are Also God's Creation.

When Younger Writers And Poets, Musicians And Painters Are Weakened By A Stemming Of Funds, They Come To Me Saddened, Not As Full Of Dreams And Excitement And Ideas. I Am Then Weakened And Diminished, And Made Less Rich.

We Have To Confront Ourselves. Do We Like What We See In The Mirror? And, According To Our Light, According To Our Understanding, According To Our Courage, We Will Have To Say Yea Or Nay - And Rise!

If You're Serious, You Really Understand That It's Important That You Laugh As Much As Possible And Admit That You're The Funniest Person You Ever Met. You Have To Laugh. Admit That You're Funny. Otherwise, You Die In Solemnity.

I Know That I'm Not The Easiest Person To Live With. The Challenge I Put On Myself Is So Great That The Person I Live With Feels Himself Challenged. I Bring A Lot To Bear, And I Don't Know How Not To.

I Never Expected Anyone To Take Care Of Me, But In My Wildest Dreams And Juvenile Yearnings, I Wanted The House With The Picket Fence From June Allyson Movies. I Knew That Was Yearning Like One Yearns To Fly.

If You Will Have A Person Enslaved, The First Thing You Must Do Is Convince Yourself That The Person Is Subhuman. The Second Thing You Have To Do Is Convince Your Allies So You'll Have Some Help, And The Third And Probably Unkindest Cut Of All Is To Convince That Person That He Or She Is Subhuman And Deserves It.

Independence Is A Heady Draught, And If You Drink It In Your Youth, It Can Have The Same Effect On The Brain As Young Wine Does. It Does Not Matter That Its Taste Is Not Always Appealing. It Is Addictive And With Each Drink You Want More.

I Am Grateful To Be A Woman. I Must Have Done Something Great In Another Life.

At One Time In My Life, From The Time I Was Seven Until I Was About 13, I Didn't Speak. I Only Spoke To My Brother. The Reason I Didn't Speak: I Had Been Molested, And I Told The Name Of The Molester To My Brother Who Told It To The Family.

I Promised Myself That I Would Write As Well As I Can, Tell The Truth, Not To Tell Everything I Know, But To Make Sure That Everything I Tell Is True, As I Understand It. And To Use The Eloquence Which My Language Affords Me.

Love Is Like A Virus. It Can Happen To Anybody At Any Time.

If We Don't Plant The Right Things, We Will Reap The Wrong Things. It Goes Without Saying. And You Don't Have To Be, You Know, A Brilliant Biochemist And You Don't Have To Have An Iq Of 150. Just Common Sense Tells You To Be Kind, Ninny, Fool. Be Kind.

I Always Knew From That Moment, From The Time I Found Myself At Home In That Little Segregated Library In The South, All The Way Up Until I Walked Up The Steps Of The New York City Library, I Always Felt, In Any Town, If I Can Get To A Library, I'll Be Ok. It Really Helped Me As A Child, And That Never Left Me.

If I'm The People's Poet, Then I Ought To Be In People's Hands - And, I Hope, In Their Heart.

I've Still Not Written As Well As I Want To. I Want To Write So That The Reader In Des Moines, Iowa, In Kowloon, China, In Cape Town, South Africa, Can Say, 'You Know, That's The Truth. I Wasn't There, And I Wasn't A Six-foot Black Girl, But That's The Truth.'

I Write Some Country Music. There's A Song Called 'I Hope You Dance.' Incredible. I Was Going To Write That Poem; Somebody Beat Me To It.

Most People Don't Grow Up. It's Too Damn Difficult. What Happens Is Most People Get Older. That's The Truth Of It. They Honor Their Credit Cards, They Find Parking Spaces, They Marry, They Have The Nerve To Have Children, But They Don't Grow Up.

There Is Nothing So Pitiful As A Young Cynic Because He Has Gone From Knowing Nothing To Believing Nothing.

I'm Convinced Of This: Good Done Anywhere Is Good Done Everywhere. For A Change, Start By Speaking To People Rather Than Walking By Them Like They're Stones That Don't Matter. As Long As You're Breathing, It's Never Too Late To Do Some Good.

I Agree With Balzac And 19th-century Writers, Black And White, Who Say, 'I Write For Money.' Yes, I Think Everybody Should Be Paid Handsomely; I Insist On It, And I Pay People Who Work For Me, Or With Me, Handsomely.

I'm Interested In Women's Health Because I'm A Woman. I'd Be A Darn Fool Not To Be On My Own Side.

I Would Be Stupid Not To Be On My Own Side. But I'm A Human Being, Too. And I'm On The Side Of Human Beings, Rather Than On The Side Of Crocodiles.

Children's Talent To Endure Stems From Their Ignorance Of Alternatives.

I Was Married A Few Times, And One Of My Husbands Was Jealous Of Me Writing.

Effective Action Is Always Unjust.

The Terrorist Action Of 9/11 Gave Birth To President Obama's Entry To The White House. Not Directly, But Indirectly.

It's So Tedious Writing Cookbooks Or Writing The Recipes Because I've Never Been Much Of A Measurer. But To Write A Book, You Have To Measure Everything.

Achievement Brings Its Own Anticlimax.

My Great Hope Is To Laugh As Much As I Cry; To Get My Work Done And Try To Love Somebody And Have The Courage To Accept The Love In Return.

The Fact That The Adult American Negro Female Emerges A Formidable Character Is Often Met With Amazement, Distaste And Even Belligerance. It Is Seldom Accepted As An Inevitable Outcome Of The Struggle Won By Survivors, And Deserves Respect If Not Enthusiastic Acceptance.

Timidity Makes A Person Modest. It Makes Him Or Her Say, 'I'm Not Worthy Of Being Written Up In The Record Of Deeds In Heaven Or On Earth.' Timidity Keeps People From Their Good. They Are Afraid To Say, 'Yes, I Deserve It.'

I Don't Think There's Such A Thing As Autobiographical Fiction. If I Say It Happened, It Happened, Even If Only In My Mind.

I Think Music Is One Of The Hero/sheroes Of The African-american Existence.

Elimination Of Illiteracy Is As Serious An Issue To Our History As The Abolition Of Slavery.

Whenever Something Went Wrong When I Was Young - If I Had A Pimple Or If My Hair Broke - My Mom Would Say, 'Sister Mine, I'm Going To Make You Some Soup.' And I Really Thought The Soup Would Make My Pimple Go Away Or My Hair Stronger.

I Could Fall In Love With A Sumo Wrestler If He Told Stories And Made Me Laugh. Obviously, It Would Be Easier If Someone Was African-american And Lived Next Door And Went To The Same Church. Because Then I Wouldn't Have To Translate.

The More You Know Of Your History, The More Liberated You Are.

I Got My Own Back.

Once You Appreciate One Of Your Blessings, One Of Your Senses, Your Sense Of Hearing, Then You Begin To Respect The Sense Of Seeing And Touching And Tasting, You Learn To Respect All The Senses.

On Saturday Afternoons When All The Things Are Done In The House And There's No Real Work To Be Done, I Play Bach And Chopin And Turn It Up Real Loudly And Get A Good Bottle Of Chardonnay And Sit Out On My Deck And Look Out At The Garden.

Like A Pianist Runs Her Fingers Over The Keys, I'll Search My Mind For What To Say. Now, The Poem May Want You To Write It. And Then Sometimes You See A Situation And Think, 'I'd Like To Write About That.' Those Are Two Different Ways Of Being Approached By A Poem, Or Approaching A Poem.

I'm A Serious Aficionada Of Country Music - Reba Mcentire, Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry. I've Even Written Some Songs. They Haven't Done Anything Of Mine Yet. But It's Only A Matter Of Time.