Quotes from Maya Angelou

To be allowed, no, invited into the private lives of strangers, and to share their joys and fears, was a chance to exchange the Southern bitter wormwood for a cup of mead with Beowulf or a hot cup of tea and milk with Oliver Twist.

He watched her every move and when she left the room, his eyes allowed her reluctantly to go.

A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications.

It was a little light, but she aimed it directly at the gloom of ignorance.

I laughed too, but not at the hateful jokes made on my people.I laughed because, except that she was white, the big movie star looked just like my mother. Except that she lived in a big mansion with thousands servants. she lived just like my mother. And it was funny to think of the whitefolks' not knowing that the woman they were adoring could be my mother's twin, except that she was white and my mother was prettier. Much prettier.

If one was dying, it had to be done in style if the dying took place in whitefolks' part of town.

Grief works its way on people differently. Some sulk, or become morose, or weep and scream a vengeance at the gods.

I commend lovers, I am enheartened by lovers, I am encouraged by their courage and inspired by their passion.

When I think about myself, I almost laugh myself to death, My life has been one great big joke, A dance that's walked, A song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke, When I think about myself. Sixty

there are times when no one is right, and sometimes among family and children, no one can admit that there is no right, and that maybe at the same time there is no wrong. But in this case I was wrong and I appreciate Vivian Baxter for being big enough to accept my apology.

Prejudice is a burden which confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.

This book has been written to examine some of the ways love heals and helps a person to climb impossible heights and rise from immeasurable depths.

If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you will look forward, do so prayerfully. But the wisest course would be to be present in the present gratefully.

Shine on me, sunshine Rain on me, rain Fall softly, dewdrops And cool my brow again. Storm, blow me from here With your fiercest wind Let me float across the sky 'Til I can rest again. Fall gently, snowflakes Cover me with white Cold icy kisses and Let me rest tonight. Sun, rain, curving sky Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone Star shine, moon glow You're all that I can call my own.

The race of man is suffering And I can hear the moan, 'Cause nobody, But nobody Can make it out here alone.

Will I be less dead because I wrote this poem or you more because you read it long years hence.

When you get, give.

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes easier to die and avoid conflicts than to maintain a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.

Seek the fashion which truly fits and befits you. You will always be in fashion if you are true to yourself, and only if you are true to yourself.

I thought at the time that it was noble to bear the ills one had silently. But not so silently that others didn't know one was bearing them.

Annie, everybody has a policy. In this world you have to have a policy. Now, my policy is I don't treat colored people.

My obsession with pineapples nearly drove me mad. I dreamt of the days when I would be grown and able to buy a whole carton for myself alone. Although

I have made many mistakes and no doubt will make more before I die. When I have seen pain, when I have found that my ineptness has caused displeasure, I have learned to accept my responsibility and to forgive myself first, then to apologize to anyone injured by my misreckoning. Since I cannot in-live history, and repentance is all I can offer God, I have hopes that my sincere apologies were accepted.