American poet (1928-2014)
Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Oct. 13, 2012
I believe that each of us comes from the creator trailing wisps of glory.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Academy of Achievement
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jul. 5, 2011
I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Mar. 3, 2013
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.
MAYA ANGELOU
"Passports to Understanding"
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
MAYA ANGELOU
Facebook post, Jun. 6, 2013
A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.
MAYA ANGELOU
Maya Angelou: 365 Quotes and Sayings of Phenomenal Woman
A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true.
MAYA ANGELOU
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
When I'm writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990
The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool--and I'm not any of those--to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990
I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.
MAYA ANGELOU
attributed, Sheroes
I was raped when I was very young. I told my brother the name of the person who had done it. Within a few days the man was killed. In my child's mind--seven and a half years old--I thought my voice had killed him. So I stopped talking for five years.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, The Paris Review, fall 1990
Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence -- neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish -- it is an imponderably valuable gift.
MAYA ANGELOU
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Never whine. Whining lets a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.
MAYA ANGELOU
Letter to My Daughter
Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.
MAYA ANGELOU
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
MAYA ANGELOU
A Brave and Startling Truth
It was wonderful to receive from my President, the Freedom Award and to know that I am a member of the group most recently bought and sold with everybody's agreement, and the people who longed for freedom. When I accepted that award, I thought of all the people who had come from all over the world to find freedom in the United States. I accepted the award for African Americans, every slave who got off every boat, every European, and every Asian who came here searching for freedom.
MAYA ANGELOU
interview, Beautifully Said Magazine, Jul. 2012