Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn't be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.
Maya Angelou
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Throughout my teenage years, I read 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens every December. I... JOHN BOYNE I grew up in South Florida, and my family was pretty poor. We weren't your upper-class whites by... DICKEY BETTS I was born in a little town called Lund in British Columbia. It's like a fishing village. My par... STEWART BUTTERFIELD There is a long tradition of pungent living in the South. It was wonderful to have that imprinted on... SISSY SPACEK My dad took me out to see a meteor shower when I was a little kid, and it was scary for me because h... STEVEN SPIELBERG I was in my room in the back of my bus when I heard a knock, ... I opened the door, and there stood ... BRAD PAISLEY I wrote the Dickens book because I loved Dickens, not because I felt a kinship with him, but after w... JANE SMILEY I've told you I don't live and die by the polls. Thus, I will refrain from pointing out that we're n... , IN THE NEW REPUBLIC I went to London because, for me, it was the home of literature. I went there because of Dickens and... BEN OKRI I grew up in a really small town, so it wasn't really a fashion-forward place, and it was very c... BEHATI PRINSLOO Shoot, man, I loved being a damn heel. Something about that, just going out there and being the most... STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN For a person who grew up in the '30s and '40s in the segregated South, with so many doors cl... MAYA ANGELOU 'Joker' was a violent, dark, and brutal book, so I wanted to do something a little less heav... LEE BERMEJO Now is the only time we have, and the only time that we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON Maya Angelou had the ability to glean inspiration out of pain. THE PROPHET OF LIFE I began when I was a child, because I was born and grew up in a little village. And many people ride... ANDREA BOCELLI They could play an endless game of hide-and -seek in so many rooms and up and down the halls that in... EUDORA WELTY He even played for them. I was interested in him from when I was young so it was very exciting. Char... ALEXEI SMERTIN I am greatly impressed with the BBC's TV adaption of Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House.'... CECILIA DART-THORNTON I grew up in southwestern Virginia. I was born in South Carolina, but only because my parents had a ... WILLIAM GIBSON What I find really attractive is something that's going to be a little dangerous. Something that... PETER CAREY Matthew and I used to read Dickens together. Oh my god, it was so great. We would sit in the bathtub... SARAH JESSICA PARKER To be intimate with a married man, when my own father cheated on my mother, is not something I could... ANGELINA JOLIE Presents don't really mean much to me. I don't want to sound mawkish, but - it was the reali... GABRIEL BYRNE I'm healthy enough to still skate, so I gotta go because growing up I didn't have - I mean, ... JEFF AMENT What makes most people comfortable is some sort of sense of nostalgia. I grew up in a small town, an... JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE So often at home in the West Village, I'm like, 'Why aren't I allowed a horse?' I wo... CARY FUKUNAGA You're full of contradictions, Ms. Wallace." I looked up at him and arched a brow. "I'm a girl... TAMMARA WEBBER The only way he could have her was to shatter this stubborn faith of hers. In doing so, would he sha... FRANCINE RIVERS Use your heart. Understand. Learn to see things in the now, not as they were or will be, or as ... E.J. PATTEN I grew up in Arkansas, and I went to Little Rock Central High, which was the site of a desegregation... JEFF NICHOLS I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will... EDWARD R. MURROW I grew up in the age of discount air fare, and for me, the act of joining a culture was a great way ... BRUCE FEILER My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a v... PHILIP ZIMBARDO She was intimidating and all I could do was sit back on the couch as she paced back and forth, slowl... IN THE MAKING I grew up on a farm, and we didn't have cable and only limited radio stations, so I wasn't i... CHUCK KLOSTERMAN My childhood, I wouldn't say it was bad. It helped me grow up. I stayed out of trouble. My paren... RUSSELL WESTBROOK I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself,... WILLEM DAFOE I grew up in suburbia, so it's a world I'm familiar with... but in my experience, all the fa... JEFF BAENA Now is the only time we have, and the only time we have any control over. RICHARD CARLSON I think I said something mean when I was little, and my mother snapped on me. I was just like, '... CRAIG ROBINSON I used to think I grew up to be a man because I never really had a dad, and my mother was always at ... (I.V.) EDWARD ANDREW MOLNAR IV This house I grew up in was built in the 1800s, and the back yard was like a cemetery. Naturally, I ... ADAM WINGARD Vail's a very important place for me. Everyone kind of took me in and accepted me in that town, ... LINDSEY VONN It was frustrating to still be in the dark about something and be given only so little light. LAUREN LOLA My art teacher in junior high was a very out gay man and a mentor to me. He would tell us about Gree... GUS VAN SANT If I provide for this life and turn away from the Lord, I am wise for a moment, but lost forever. FRANCINE RIVERS The only way he could have her was to shatter this stubborn faith of hers. In doing so, would he sha... FRANCINE RIVERS I grew up with singers. My father's mother sang opera. My dad was a big band singer. I can't... J. D. SOUTHER I grew up without a lot of money and my parents grew up with far less money. And that's kept me ... ADRIEN BRODY Age mellows some people; others it makes rotten. -Heard in Arkansas. HEARD IN ARKANSAS Childhood is not dead. Children were worse off when we were hunter-gatherers; they were threatened i... ROBERT WINSTON I was brought up by a single mom in a poor town in Arkansas and while some aspects of small-town lif... BETH DITTO My dad grew up wrestling. He knew Ken Shamrock, and I didn't know who he was at the time. So, he... PAIGE VANZANT I grew up in East Germany, and we were short on technology. So my father was really proud to be the ... APPARAT I grew up in the South under segregation. So, I know what terrorism feels like - when your father co... ALICE WALKER I was born with an extremely negative attitude. I was the kid who wouldn't smile in Christmas ph... COLTON HAYNES My affinity, as a novelist, with Dickens has been overstated. I relish the way everything in his pro... MICHEL FABER I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a ... JOHN LE CARRE I think education was the key for me, and that's what I tell kids. That base in the classics gav... JIMMY SMITS My first role was in the George Gershwin musical 'Crazy for You' at the Orlando Repertory Th... AUBREY PEEPLES I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La S... MAYA ANGELOU I don't really know any other musicians like me. I grew up backstage with my dad who played in a... PETE TOWNSHEND I grew up in a small town, in a small community, and I would not have had access to great plays when... TRACY LETTS I'm not saying that people have to listen to rock music. It's a great, cool thing and it can... FRANK BLACK My friends I grew up with were so supportive to me. And I'm not the only one who's done well... EDDIE MARSAN I was born in LeMoyne Gardens and grew up in South Memphis where I attended Florida, Walker and Ford... BISHOP MARCELL WRIGHT JR When I was a kid, the idea of gettin' paid to paint your face... listen, I grew up in Ossining, ... PETER FALK I was a mixture of a country boy and a town boy, really. Chichester is a town on the coast of Englan... ED SPELEERS I grew up in a little funny town called Xuzhou, in the countryside, very poor. We didn't have ho... WENDI DENG MURDOCH When I was little, my dad used to call me 'Bandarella,' because I was a mess - a Bandar is a... PRIYANKA CHOPRA I used to play football with a load of lads, and I would be like a secret agent going out with a hat... KATARINA JOHNSON-THOMPSON I grew up in New Jersey and played sports and rode my bike around. It was a really nice time - kids ... AILEEN LEE I remember the day I found out my draft status. I was really floored and kind of staggered around in... PARKER STEVENSON I grew up in a farm in South Africa and I was scouted there and they sent me to Europe. It's kin... CANDICE SWANEPOEL I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of... JANE BIRKIN What was your first job title? Waiter. It was at a showy opera festival in a barn in Oxf... TOM HIDDLESTON My ma and pa are both very artistic, so I suppose it's in my blood. But my ma's the one who ... GREY DAMON My intentions were that I was going to get back in after I grew up a bit or straighten up. Nobody wo... FRANK WESTGATE I grew up on a farm in Lexington, Oklahoma, a rural community south of Norman. My family moved to En... HAROLD HAMM Well people often ask me how I felt growing up with a father who was a politician and who was often ... ALEXANDER DOWNER From Maya Angelou I began to believe that I, too, someday, could be a writer, and I also learned how... DIRK BENEDICT I like to play saxophone because you don't inhale. , ON A RADIO TALK SHOW IN NEW YORK I was so sure I wanted to be a novelist. I would spend hours and hours every day writing. Little sto... SAMANTHA SHANNON There was a possibility that God really did love me, me Maya Angelou. I suddenly began to cry at the... MAYA ANGELOU ..my father was the best man in the world and probably worth a hundred of me, but he didn't understa... BOB DYLAN Once the scent caught me on the street in Greenwich Village. I stopped in my tracks and looked aroun... REBECCA WELLS I'm a small-town kid who grew up with a cornfield in the back yard and dreaming of serving my co... MIKE PENCE I grew up in a small town where we played around on motorcycles and things, but it really started wh... KATEE SACKHOFF I want to thank the NBA and U.S.A. Basketball. Words can't describe my feeling. I was a small to... SCOTTIE PIPPEN I grew up in a small town in Ireland and didn't know any actors. I never thought it was a viable... KATIE MCGRATH I grew up in a little town in Minnesota, 500 people. I went out to Princeton, and I wasn't very ... WALTER KIRN I went through my whole life wanting to feel I belonged. I was very, very lonely, so I would marry p... LANA WOOD All of a sudden, I was in charge of my own decisions in the studio, and I didn't have someone to... JOHNNY MATHIS I grew up in a house where there was lots of teasing and language play and laughter; it was very imp... DYLAN MORAN I picked ducks in a tub in my dorm room. I'd hang deer in the doorway between the bedroom and th... PHIL ROBERTSON I'm a serious-minded and intense little devil, terribly gauche and so tense I don't see how ... JAMES DEAN I grew up in Hollywood during WWII, and my mother was afraid that my father was going to be drafted ... KAROLYN GRIMES Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really m... MARY J. BLIGE
More Maya Angelou
In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to li... MAYA ANGELOU Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. MAYA ANGELOU Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper ... MAYA ANGELOU Encouragement to all women is - let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to... MAYA ANGELOU My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some com... MAYA ANGELOU There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it. MAYA ANGELOU Shakespeare - I was very influenced - still am - by Shakespeare. I couldn't believe that a white... MAYA ANGELOU Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beau... MAYA ANGELOU The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it ove... MAYA ANGELOU In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church j... MAYA ANGELOU I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when... MAYA ANGELOU I like to have guns around. I don't like to carry them. MAYA ANGELOU If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their h... MAYA ANGELOU I became the kind of parent my mother was to me. MAYA ANGELOU I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody. MAYA ANGELOU I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'... MAYA ANGELOU I was born in St. Louis but lived there just for a few minutes in my life. MAYA ANGELOU I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human bein... MAYA ANGELOU I was very blessed to have family and friends, but particularly family, who told me I was not only a... MAYA ANGELOU Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been livi... MAYA ANGELOU I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with 'Porgy and Bess,' the opera. And ... MAYA ANGELOU I've read everything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote; my brother and I memorized whole chapters of '... MAYA ANGELOU All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened. MAYA ANGELOU All information belongs to everybody all the time. It should be available. It should be accessible t... MAYA ANGELOU I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English. MAYA ANGELOU I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my b... MAYA ANGELOU Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to Californ... MAYA ANGELOU The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are. MAYA ANGELOU Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become u... MAYA ANGELOU One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can... MAYA ANGELOU I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't w... MAYA ANGELOU I got my own back. MAYA ANGELOU If you want what you're saying heard, then take your time and say it so that the listener will a... MAYA ANGELOU I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money.'... MAYA ANGELOU Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continui... MAYA ANGELOU I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. MAYA ANGELOU Don't let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don't whine. Y... MAYA ANGELOU We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, ac... MAYA ANGELOU I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a... MAYA ANGELOU I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings. MAYA ANGELOU During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You hav... MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you... MAYA ANGELOU In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me. MAYA ANGELOU Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry,... MAYA ANGELOU My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some p... MAYA ANGELOU If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I'd hear a loud 'A-hem!'... MAYA ANGELOU When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and su... MAYA ANGELOU Fighting for one's freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a ... MAYA ANGELOU Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery. MAYA ANGELOU Once you appreciate one of your blessings, one of your senses, your sense of hearing, then you begin... MAYA ANGELOU While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone ... MAYA ANGELOU The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I d... MAYA ANGELOU Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, 'Children's Letters to God.' You can ... MAYA ANGELOU Eating is so intimate. It's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you w... MAYA ANGELOU My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to ... MAYA ANGELOU You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else... MAYA ANGELOU Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more. MAYA ANGELOU The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken. MAYA ANGELOU Nothing will work unless you do. MAYA ANGELOU Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time. MAYA ANGELOU You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. MAYA ANGELOU I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing. MAYA ANGELOU If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth... MAYA ANGELOU There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. MAYA ANGELOU Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacr... MAYA ANGELOU Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any... MAYA ANGELOU Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.' MAYA ANGELOU Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It's very... MAYA ANGELOU I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't k... MAYA ANGELOU Bitterness is cancer - it eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its disple... MAYA ANGELOU I'm working at trying to be a Christian, and that's serious business. It's like trying t... MAYA ANGELOU Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise. MAYA ANGELOU We all need the waters of the Mercy River. Though they don't run deep, there's usually enough, just ... MAYA ANGELOU The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous. MAYA ANGELOU When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep MAYA ANGELOU Language. I loved it. And for a long time I would think of myself, of my whole body, as an ear. MAYA ANGELOU Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise... MAYA ANGELOU What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change ... MAYA ANGELOU We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achie... MAYA ANGELOU The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned... MAYA ANGELOU Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer t... MAYA ANGELOU I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it. (Popular misquo... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go o... MAYA ANGELOU When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will... MAYA ANGELOU I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. MAYA ANGELOU When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, li... MAYA ANGELOU Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any oth... MAYA ANGELOU Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time. MAYA ANGELOU I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African sa... MAYA ANGELOU Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet. MAYA ANGELOU Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the br... MAYA ANGELOU A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her. MAYA ANGELOU I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go... MAYA ANGELOU When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time. MAYA ANGELOU We need much less than we think we need. MAYA ANGELOU The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise. MAYA ANGELOU What sets one Southern town apart from another, or from a Northern town or hamlet, or city high-rise... MAYA ANGELOU If on Judgement Day I were summoned by St. Peter to give testimony to the used-to-be sheriff's act o... MAYA ANGELOU You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encoun... MAYA ANGELOU Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: I'm with you kid. Let's go. MAYA ANGELOU Life loves the liver of it. MAYA ANGELOU A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. MAYA ANGELOU I answer the heroic question Death where is thy sting? It is here in my heart and mind and memories MAYA ANGELOU ...there is a difference between being convinced and being stubborn. I MAYA ANGELOU We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, ... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go o... MAYA ANGELOU Each of us has the right and the responsibility to asses the road which lie ahead and those over whi... MAYA ANGELOU Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence -- neither speed up nor slow down,... MAYA ANGELOU I believe that every person is born with talent. MAYA ANGELOU A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's gre... MAYA ANGELOU Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater. MAYA ANGELOU The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't per... MAYA ANGELOU A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best challenges herself to give the be... MAYA ANGELOU The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind o... MAYA ANGELOU Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations. MAYA ANGELOU The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and ... MAYA ANGELOU It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don MAYA ANGELOU My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I al... MAYA ANGELOU Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes... MAYA ANGELOU At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistanc... MAYA ANGELOU I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but... MAYA ANGELOU My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have th... MAYA ANGELOU All of childhood's unanswered questions must finally be passed back to the town and answered there. ... MAYA ANGELOU Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if t... MAYA ANGELOU Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives. MAYA ANGELOU The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind. MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complai... MAYA ANGELOU If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded. MAYA ANGELOU I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be... MAYA ANGELOU I answer the heroic question "Death, where is they sting?" with "It is here in my heart and mind and... MAYA ANGELOU We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the thr... MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain... MAYA ANGELOU I do not believe that the accident of birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them sibling... MAYA ANGELOU The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more bl... MAYA ANGELOU Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoe... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go ... MAYA ANGELOU The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amaze... MAYA ANGELOU If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. MAYA ANGELOU You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, p... MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad itseems today, life does go on, and it will be ... MAYA ANGELOU Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, w... MAYA ANGELOU I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into ... MAYA ANGELOU When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace,love, prosperity, happiness... all the good things. MAYA ANGELOU If men are God's gift to women, then God must really love gag gifts MAYA ANGELOU A woman's beauty is not a gift to man - only a bribe MAYA ANGELOU There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. MAYA ANGELOU Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I'm with you kid. Let's go." MAYA ANGELOU My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday ev... MAYA ANGELOU I promised myself that I would write as well as I can, tell the truth, not to tell everything I know... MAYA ANGELOU I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even ... MAYA ANGELOU Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that... MAYA ANGELOU As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men de... MAYA ANGELOU If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person... MAYA ANGELOU The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amaze... MAYA ANGELOU To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball the... MAYA ANGELOU The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned... MAYA ANGELOU We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are... MAYA ANGELOU I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and bel... MAYA ANGELOU If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love. MAYA ANGELOU It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Be... MAYA ANGELOU The language of all the interpretations, the translations, of the Judaic Bible and the Christian Bib... MAYA ANGELOU I read the Bible to myself; I'll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to h... MAYA ANGELOU I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So ... MAYA ANGELOU Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. MAYA ANGELOU All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more ... MAYA ANGELOU We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are m... MAYA ANGELOU I'm grateful to intelligent people. That doesn't mean educated. That doesn't mean intell... MAYA ANGELOU You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, ... MAYA ANGELOU I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scrip... MAYA ANGELOU When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. MAYA ANGELOU I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I... MAYA ANGELOU You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot -... MAYA ANGELOU I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself ... MAYA ANGELOU If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die. MAYA ANGELOU It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is... MAYA ANGELOU If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. MAYA ANGELOU All great achievements require time. MAYA ANGELOU Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. MAYA ANGELOU You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I ... MAYA ANGELOU I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. MAYA ANGELOU Most people don't grow up. It's too damn difficult. What happens is most people get older. T... MAYA ANGELOU There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more ... MAYA ANGELOU I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind. MAYA ANGELOU I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people ... MAYA ANGELOU It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. MAYA ANGELOU We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can... MAYA ANGELOU I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life. MAYA ANGELOU I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life lo... MAYA ANGELOU I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression. MAYA ANGELOU I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself. MAYA ANGELOU The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else'... MAYA ANGELOU Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and... MAYA ANGELOU Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessi... MAYA ANGELOU One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we can... MAYA ANGELOU If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And y... MAYA ANGELOU History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived... MAYA ANGELOU I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaki... MAYA ANGELOU What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been pai... MAYA ANGELOU Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother. MAYA ANGELOU