Maya Angelou Quotes

All riddles are blues, / And all blues are sad, / And I'm only mentioning / Some blues I've had.

The music was my friend, my lover, my family.

You never get over the fear of writing.

Oh, the holiness of being the injured party.

Poetry helps my soul escape its encasement.

I suggest that the great art belongs to all people, all the time--that indeed it is made for the people, by the people, to the people.

I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people.

[Librarians] study their field with as much determination and as much delight as open-heart surgeons.

I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.

I am convinced that most people do not grow up ... our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias.

That's the biggest gift I can give anybody: 'Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you're doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.'

Preach it, I say preach it.

I'm young as morning and fresh as dew. Everybody loves me and so do you.

The dread of futility has been my life-long plague.

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

Pretty Women Wonder Where My Secret Lies, Im Not Cute Or Built To Fit A Fashion Models Size.

Y’all dropped the ball and you should be shamed.

You can't use up creativity, creative thinking builds on itself and increases the creativity of the thinker...You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older.

It's wonderful that whenever Patsy Cline's name is mentioned, people's voices fall and they become right sentimental. And, rightly so.

I know that I've been guided by God. I am obedient.

I would welcome a friendship with Lynne Hinton. I would welcome an invitation to sit down at her table, but mostly I would welcome her next book.

If you have a song to sing, who are you not to open your mouth and sing to the world?

Only equals make friends, every other relationship is contrived and off balance.

Raising kids is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.

To be human is to be challenged to be more divine. Not even to try to meet such a challenge is the biggest defeat imaginable.

There is an amazing something in the American psyche which speaks about courage, and it says, 'Yes I can,' ... Yes, we will overcome it all because we have the spirit to do so.

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.

Just because I am wheelchair-bound doesn't mean I don't get around.

When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world, that is when, and only when we come to it

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you're the funniest person you've ever heard of.

I believe what I have to say is important, and I believe the people coming to hear me are important, and so the occasion of itself alone has an importance, which forces me to stare down my nerves.

I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment.

People trying to separate people rather than bring us together... please. You don't just see it in America. It's all over the world.

I get up in the morning, and I'm reluctant to turn on the television.

I never have written every day. When I'm writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.

I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.

I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even afraid of it - it's a learned affectation and it's just stuck on me like decals.

Whining lets the brute know there's a victim for him in the neighborhood!

Grace is like a lake of drinkable water right outside your door. But you stay inside and die of thirst.

If I'm here, I'll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.

I've learned that forgiving is one of the greatest gifts that I can give myself.

When I forgive other people, I let them go, I free them from my ignorance. And as soon as I do, I feel lighter, brighter and better.

When people see the laughing face, even if they're jealous of it, their burden is lightened. But do it first for yourself. Laugh and dare to try to love somebody, starting with yourself.

Dr. [Martin Luther] King was a human being. He had a sense of humor which was wonderful.

I don't think modesty is a very good virtue, if it is a virtue at all. A modest person will drop the modesty in a minute. It's a learned affectation.

Those who have something to say accept the fact that that's lonely. One already knows that there will be adversaries.

People feel guilty. And guilt is stymieing. Guilt immobilizes. Guilt closes the air ducts and the veins, and makes people ignorant.

It is better to control oneself, if one can, and not hit back. But on certain occasions, it is imperative to defend oneself. I don't think it's fair to ask anybody not to defend herself or himself.

Because of technological breakthroughs, the society will need fewer and fewer unskilled laborers.