At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn't matter. You said, 'That's an American' because there's a readiness to smile and to talk to people.
Maya Angelou
Related Are you taking us to the beach?" - Dan Cahill JUDE WATSON It looks ancient," - Amy Cahill JUDE WATSON 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 I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people ... MARGARET PETERSON HADDIX Let's head out to the ruins." - Dan Cahill ROLAND SMITH If I could give one tip for people - it's not an exercise or nutrition regimen. It's to walk... BRETT HOEBEL If at noon you sit down and there's just silence or blank tape, in an hour if you have a song, t... EDDIE VEDDER It's hard to get people at a record company to talk about music. They don't seem to want to ... HENRY ROLLINS Mayors could never get away with the kind of nonsense that goes on in Washington. In our world, you ... MICHAEL NUTTER You come to our stadium and look at the aura of 100,000 people. You look up there and see an Army ta... JERRY JONES When you're an actor, you often feel victimized - you see the end result, 'Oh, they didn'... RON HOWARD I think one of my first jokes - in the black community, there's people who have jokes about skin... HANNIBAL BURESS I'm still a big 'Grey's Anatomy' fan. BROOKE ELLIOTT I used to watch 'Grey's Anatomy' pretty religiously. ERINN HAYES I think at the beginning of a project, you decide if you're in love with the idea and what it... SPIKE JONZE You could argue that 'Sweeney Todd' was romantic, if you looked closely at it, but it didn... HAROLD PRINCE There's something I love about how stark the contrast is between January and June in Sweden. In ... ALEXANDER SKARSGARD I've heard 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' read, and I tell you Mrs. Stowe's pen hasn't ... HARRIET TUBMAN It wouldn't sit easily on one's conscience that you had been warned and there could be dange... THABO MBEKI I'm from the South, where if you walk down the street and there's somebody behind you talkin... JOHNNIE COCHRAN A black dress is beautiful! It's a good choice. It could be the wrong choice at certain events o... OLIVIER THEYSKENS I remember being in a history lesson and saying to my teacher, 'How come you never talk about bl... MALORIE BLACKMAN About f-f-ace!" she said to the horse, flailing with her boots. "Into the barn, please. It's time fo... PETER LERANGIS You see?" Damien leaned over his desk and spread out half a dozen charcoal sketches. "These are only... RICK RIORDAN It's one thing if you live in London and you're rooting for Chelsea or you're in New Yor... JOHN MCENROE In the South we experienced, you know, some black kids who gave us a hard time because - cause '... STUART SCOTT When I take a black-and-white portrait, it's not particularly meant to please you. It's mean... DON MCCULLIN The Americans at heart are a pure and noble people; things to them are in black and white. It's ... DAVID BOWIE It's difficult to choose a Word of the Year in the year that you're in. It's one of thos... ERIN MCKEAN When you're on set all day, and you don't look people in the eye, it's really relaxing. ... RYAN CARTWRIGHT War's not black and white; it's gray. If you don't fight in the gray area, you're go... MARCUS LUTTRELL I think, in a written novel, the way in which you play with the readers' emotion or the way in w... SALMAN RUSHDIE There's, what, 300 films at the Telluride or Toronto or something. How many are those people gon... ED HARRIS Even in 'Victor/Victoria,' there was talk about what it means to be a woman, what it means t... SYDNEY POLLACK There's a certain level of realness in Philly. You know, just - people are people. You know, it ... JILL SCOTT You go to a technology conference or an engineering conference, there are very few women there. At t... PADMASREE WARRIOR It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving - you can put your elbows on it, you don&... JOHN HUGHES When you're in theater or the circus or film - to me it's all one - affairs happen. People f... BAZ LUHRMANN You go to Los Angeles or New York or Miami or Chicago, and you see Latinos everywhere; they are invo... THALIA Everyone should have cancer one time - then you'd know that other things aren't important. T... BOBBY HEENAN I'm all about the crossover. The role doesn't necessarily have to be white or Latina or blac... RUTINA WESLEY Before 'Grey's Anatomy,' I was doing musicals, plays, commercials, you name it. CHANDRA WILSON There are so many aspects of human sexuality that we're afraid to talk about, because people sti... SASHA GREY The thing is that when you don't carry a camera, that's when you see pictures in particular,... ELLIOTT ERWITT If there is something that strikes me as interesting or beautiful or something I could learn from, a... TAVI GEVINSON When Kennedy said, 'Let's go to the moon,' we didn't yet have a vehicle that wouldn&... NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON You need to have camaraderie in the clubhouse. Wherever you're working, be it a baseball team or... PAT GILLICK They don't show Olympic boxing on TV in prime time. They haven't done that since 1988. In 19... EVANDER HOLYFIELD The climate suits me, and London has the greatest serious music that you can hear any day of the wee... DAVID ATTENBOROUGH There are two worlds out there - two Americas out there. If you're a white person, there's o... CLAUDIA RANKINE A good trick I learnt early on is not to immediately look at playback because once you know the shot... AIDAN TURNER You look at most artists, the arc of their career, there's a definite decline at the end. And th... SETH I didn't know that I could do a talk show. I didn't know that we could bring variety to dayt... WAYNE BRADY When a movie like 'Superbad' or 'Moneyball' comes out, people make you feel like you... JONAH HILL The thing about Moby Dick is that, at heart, it's a very simple plot - there's only one whit... GAVIN O'CONNOR When someone saves your life and gives you life, there's gratitude, humility; there's a time... PAT SUMMERALL John Kerry doesn't think in terms of black-and-white. He's all gray, and he looks at all sid... DOUGLAS BRINKLEY Seat assignment didn't matter if you're flying Dallas to Houston and you did it 38 times a d... DAVID NEELEMAN I believe that there's good content or bad content. You see interviews when somebody interviews ... EMILIO AZCARRAGA JEAN In a way, 'Sin City's designed to be paced somewhere between an American comic book and Japa... FRANK MILLER Whether it's standing backstage with Jennifer Lopez in a dress that I know everyone will be talk... KEVIN FRAZIER If you're guilty of something, you can focus on that, but if something terrible happens, and you... DARIN STRAUSS The Muslim world just doesn't believe that skin color is all that important. Obama may be half-b... BEN SHAPIRO I will say, there's not an episode in existence where whatever didn't come out the way I wan... CHRISTOPHER MCCULLOCH There's sadness to anyone that dies before their time, and specifically ones that seem to affect... CHRIS CORNELL There's probably people that go to Harvard and say, 'Listen, I went to Harvard. I got a grea... ERIC TRUMP I don't care whether you're driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you're headed for a cliff, yo... BARACK OBAMA The one mistake you must never make is to agree to make a film or sign on to film that you don't... PAUL GREENGRASS Nothing is black or white, nothing's 'us or them.' But then there are magical, beautiful... DAVE MATTHEWS I have no idea what goes on in another person's mind. As a legislator, I need to be good at pers... TAMMY BALDWIN Everything is not black-and-white. I'm really interested in the gray area - not justifying it, n... ISAIAH WASHINGTON It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Brana... ANTHONY HOPKINS The essential relationship across American history between black people and white people is one of e... TA-NEHISI COATES I chose not to put a wig on. The reason why I chose to come out with the cancer thing is because the... SHARON JONES Whether the theater is 1,000 seats or 500 seats or 200 seats, you have to make sure the person in th... STERLING K. BROWN In every person we meet there's this little piece of God in them and that's who you talk to.... TERRENCE HOWARD Any time you stop looking at evil as a black and white thing, it's helpful. So the fact that the... JOHN CUSACK Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. You must be eating some of what's on that pla... MALCOLM X Any artist, the work you do, if it's a painting or if it's a performance, you hope it transl... MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY I tell people, and it's the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won't make me ... JOYCE MEYER I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says... MAYA ANGELOU I think from an actor's point of view, you always want something to play that's dramatic or ... OWAIN YEOMAN By the time I was 25 or 26, I would have earned a million, but if you looked in the bank account, it... ERIC BRISTOW I always find Victoria's Secret models a bit weird. EDIE CAMPBELL If you want a referendum, vote for the others. Or, in certain cases, you can stay at home, you don... JEAN CHAREST You're not making a decision if you come to a fork in the road. There is no 'it' to take... PAUL SAMUELSON I've got a few ideas," (Amy) admitted. "But I don't know where we're going in the long term. I mean ... RICK RIORDAN I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La S... MAYA ANGELOU In America, you're just an American. You're accepted. It doesn't matter that you're ... BENEDICT WONG If you're gay and you can't hold hands, or you're black and you can't catch a taxi, ... TONY KUSHNER Comedy is so subjective. You could be in a room with 400 people laughing at a joke and you could jus... TODD PHILLIPS The party lines don't change, that's what makes them a party and you'd be a fool to thin... LUPE FIASCO LA's a very hard place to be unless you have people there that love you. It can be very, very lo... SCARLETT JOHANSSON You can talk about what you see from the outside; it's hard to tell me who I am when you're ... RAY LEWIS Anybody who likes writing a book is an idiot. Because it's impossible; it's like having a ho... LEWIS BLACK Press junkets are incredibly annoying. You sit in a chair for three to six hours and have different ... ANNABELLA SCIORRA You know, you can make a small mistake in language or etiquette in Britain, or you could when I was ... CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS You don't necessarily need a script or actors to tell a compelling tale. Finding a person at a k... D. A. PENNEBAKER I know what it's like to be famous. It's good money and it's great fun. A real kick in t... PIERCE BROSNAN
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