If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I'd hear a loud 'A-hem!' from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same.
Maya Angelou
Related If I wasn't writing poems I'd be washing my hands all the time. SHERMAN ALEXIE Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON If my kid couldn't draw I'd make sure that my kitchen magnets didn't work. MITCH HEDBERG It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON I love celebrating Mother's Day. Since I was a kid, it was a special day to tell my mother and g... KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND You always hear people saying, 'I hope I'm not turning into my dad', but I'd be hono... JOHNNY VEGAS It SMELLS ancient," - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON Palm trees were fanned by a warm, light breeze, and they rolled down their windows to smell the sea. JUDE WATSON My mother went to a school called 'The Club of the Three Wise Monkeys'. And my grandmother, ... MACKENZIE PHILLIPS My mother's kitchen was built to be the focal point of our house. I got into the kitchen often a... GAIL SIMMONS When I was a child, she'd have me wash the lettuce ten times or open walnuts by hand to make a c... DANIEL HUMM Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH As a youngster, my mother and father always drilled into my head having something to fall back on. M... SHAQUILLE O'NEAL I got a lot of influence from my father, honestly. He'd take me in his car. I'd hear Carlos ... ACTION BRONSON My mother encouraged it so much. She was so supportive. Even if as a kid, I would do the dumbest tri... DAVID BLAINE I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says... MAYA ANGELOU I was raised going to the movies with my grandmother as a kid. And then I'd come home, and my be... CAROL BURNETT My mother, grandmother and older sister all cooked, so it was hard to get into the kitchen. So I hav... CHERYL LADD I have great ideas, but the follow through is always really difficult for me. As my kid gets a littl... BUSY PHILIPPS I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people ... MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX My mother always, always, always thought that I was going to be famous. Thought that I was going to ... KEVIN SPACEY I can count all the ways in which being a mother has enriched my understanding of the world, of char... BARBARA KINGSOLVER I've been my mom's kitchen helper since I was a little kid. TAYLOR SWIFT I've stepped more into my womanhood, I'm a mother now, I'm having a beautiful relationsh... ALICIA KEYS I'd rather break stones on the king's highway than hem a handkerchief. ANNE SULLIVAN The best sounds a kid will get is in a movie theater, with huge speakers, turned up loud. I always m... JOHN HUGHES As a 13, - 14-year-old kid, I'd sit on my bed with a tape recorder and a newspaper. I would do m... LESTER HOLT I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La S... MAYA ANGELOU My family was musical on both sides. My father's family had a famous flautist and a classical pi... GLORIA ESTEFAN On my first day in office as President Quavo, I'd move my whole family into the White House. Sec... QUAVO I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother's kitchen. If I don't have time to coo... KAMALA HARRIS I'd love to own a bakery at some point. My grandmother could help me run it - she is an amazing ... JORDIN SPARKS I'd lose my mind if I heard my kid call the nanny Mommy. TONI BRAXTON My parents were just constantly affirming me in everything that I did. Late at night, I'd wake u... STEPHEN COVEY Sitting at home the way I do, I'd just love the hear from people. It'd be a great help in pa... BUD ABBOTT As a kid, I'd eat at my mother's house, then go down the road to my girlfriend's and eat... BRUCE SMITH I use my Bionic flat iron and hair dryer, all shampoo and conditioners are sulfate free, and keep th... EDY GANEM I'm part Spanish. My paternal grandfather came from Spain via Singapore to Manila. On my mother&... JESSICA HAGEDORN Sometimes I'd hear things on other people's records and I say I wanted it on my records, but... DESMOND DEKKER My mother hoped I'd be a plumber. RICHARD FLANAGAN I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying t... OPRAH WINFREY My creative process is quite slow. I hear melodies in my head while I'm washing the dishes and I... SINEAD O'CONNOR I just prefer instrumental. I don't need to hear what other people are singing. And if I need mu... LYDIA LUNCH I'd worship the ground you walked on if only you walked in a better neighborhood. BILLY WILDER Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really m... MARY J. BLIGE In the back of my mind was the constant hankering, almost yearning, to write but something always st... MARY GARDEN When I spent time with my father, it wasn't playing ball in the back yard. I came to his office ... DONALD TRUMP, JR. When I was a kid, I'd practise Chopin on piano - and I love Chopin! He's my dawg! Then I'... ALICIA KEYS When I was a kid, I was roaming through Glastonbury Festival at eight years old, on my own. I say ... ALFIE ALLEN Mind you, I've always been musical... Mother used to sit me on her knee and I'd whisper, ... LES DAWSON I never figured I'd go into the Hall of Fame. A kid from the Hill. YOGI BERRA When I was a little girl, my dream was just to hear my song on the radio. It was very fascinating to... BEBE REXHA 'SNL' is part of my history. I got on the show as a kid. That's the show I got known fro... EDDIE MURPHY When I was a kid, I would do Andrew Dice Clay jokes for my siblings. Like, we'd be on vacation, ... NICK KROLL I always wanted to play Joan of Arc. I've always wanted to do that. Now I'm thinking, 'M... ELLEN BURSTYN I've had a lot of luck. If I didn't I'd be washing bottles in Russia. MARAT SAFIN My mother and my father were teachers. My grandmother and my grandfather were teachers. This is some... WARREN BEATTY If it were said that I didn't fulfil my potential as a mother and wife, I'd be heartbroken. ... DIANA RIGG I had a baby at 19 and was a grandmother by 39. Now, my children lend me their children to take them... JANE BIRKIN I don't think my dad really knew what to do with me, as a daughter. He treated me like a boy; my... EMMA WATSON I'd say specifically after 'Get Smart,' people now know me either as The Guy from 'G... NATE TORRENCE People didn't like me; I was loud and aggressive. People can take it from a 42-year-old, but whe... ARIEL LEVY When I was a kid, I'd kneel down at the side of my bed every night before I went to sleep, and m... OLYMPIA DUKAKIS I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture an... H. P. LOVECRAFT Growing up in New Orleans as Archie Manning's son, I felt like a target, and I've always kno... PEYTON MANNING The only way I hear gossip is if it's big enough and loud enough for my friends to bring it up t... TAYLOR SWIFT When I was a kid, my mum had a lot of Dumas books in the house, and she's from France originally... TOM REISS In 1965, I went to what was called the worst Bihar famine in India, and I saw starvation, death, peo... BUNKER ROY I love lifestyle stuff, I love housewares. I'm really a homebody, honestly. Anything to do with ... KELIS If you didn't know who I was, if I was to walk out on the street without people knowing who I am... CHRISTOPHER GUEST As long as someone wants to hear my music, I don't care if it's a ringtone or the album or w... T-PAIN I try not to put anything political on the forefront of what I'm trying to do creatively. At the... MINDY KALING I don't listen to the radio, cause I don't have a driver's license. But if I'm in L.... BENNY BLANCO I'm not like a professional writer with professional skills. Songs kind of come into my head the... BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE As a kid, I'd get up at 3 in the morning during school vacations to help my father on his bakery... IRV KUPCINET I was a tomboy right from the time I was a kid and loved to be like that. I'd hate all the girli... NATASHA HENSTRIDGE As people, right now, we're so over-stimulated in this world that I don't know what I'd ... KATEE SACKHOFF If my mother knew I did this for a living, she'd kill me. She thinks I'm selling dope. HENNY YOUNGMAN If I'm going to go out to be a solo artist, it's because I want to do something different wi... CHRIS CORNELL Whenever I tell people I'm from Miami, they always ask me about the beach. But I can count on on... BARRY JENKINS A roast is really an honor. If they picked me to be roasted, I'd be the most flattered I'd b... LISA LAMPANELLI I didn't like to stop playing for a second to bother with eating or going to the bathroom. I was... TIG NOTARO My neighborhood was rough, but I live a great life now. I don't fight that much now. I don't... SHIA LABEOUF If I do a movie where I have to have a son and it's a chubby kid, my mother is always like, '... KEVIN JAMES I would wake up really early and go into the hotel bathroom, put a towel over the toilet, and put my... CAMILA CABELLO I grew up at my grandmother's house and she had a beautiful garden. I used to hate mowing the la... ELTON JOHN If I walked into a restaurant, the other diners would look around and say, 'I hope you're no... VIC TAYBACK All I watch is the Food Network. I took a cheesemaking class a few weeks ago, and I told my family a... JESSE MCCARTNEY The word's out: I'm a woman, and I'm going to have trouble backing off on that. I am wha... ELIZABETH WARREN Everything in my life boils down to my mother. A tradition, which a lot of people do not know of, is... SONU NIGAM I love Westerns and I remember as a kid climbing up on the couch and make it into a saddle and shoot... CREED BRATTON I'd walk over my own grandmother to re-elect Richard Nixon. CHARLES COLSON If I weren't performing, I'd be a beauty editor or a therapist. I love creativity, but I als... BEYONCE KNOWLES I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'... TOM BRADY It'd be great to do some other TV. 'Breaking Bad' is definitely my home, but I'd lov... BETSY BRANDT We'd be doing parkour on my high school roof; we'd get in trouble. But I was never a reckles... DACRE MONTGOMERY People would ask me to autograph their bodies and then the next time I'd see them on tour they... CHUCK PALAHNIUK I'm like a little kid when it comes to music. I mean, the music is always blasting wherever I am... DONATELLA VERSACE Even among those who I would not count as 'friends,' I have met many people online who have ... AARON SWARTZ My mother tried really hard to protect us, but occasionally, after afternoon cartoons of whatever wa... SUZANNE COLLINS
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 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 We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. MAYA ANGELOU