Quotes from Maya Angelou

She comprehended the perversity of life, that in the struggle lies the joy.

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!

I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being.

Just like moons and suns, With certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.

It is this belief in a power larger than myself and other than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the unknowable.

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks 'the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,'.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style.

The charitable say in effect, 'I seem to have more than I need and you seem to have less than you need. I would like to share my excess with you.' Fine, if my excess is tangible, money or goods, and fine if not, for I learned that to be charitable with gestures and words can bring enormous joy and repair injured feelings.

I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness.