Maya Angelou Quotes
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I love a Hebrew National hot dog with an ice-cold Corona - no lime. If the phone rings, I won't answer until I'm done.
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Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
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Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning.
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I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life.
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I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing.
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In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.
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A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. ... Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.
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Effective action is always unjust.
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If you're a human being, you can attempt to do what other human beings have done. We don't understand talent any more than we understand electricity.
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In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it.
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The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently.
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Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'
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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.
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I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.
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If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
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Yes. 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.
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Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I'd listen to Italian music.
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I created myself. I have taught myself so much.
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I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.
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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.
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As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
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I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.
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When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.
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Petulant priests, greedy centurions, and one million incensed gestures stand between your love and me.