Maya Angelou

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

“I love the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack. I was going to write that song, but someone beat me to it.”

“That knowledge humbles me, melts my bones, closes my ears, and makes my teeth rock loosely in their gums. And it also liberates me. I am a big bird winging over high mountains, down into serene valleys. I am ripples of waves on silver seas. I'm a spring leaf trembling in anticipation.”

“I'm a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I'm even afraid of it - it's a learned affectation and it's just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.”

“Shakespeare - I was very influenced - still am - by Shakespeare. I couldn't believe that a white man in the 16th century could so know my heart.”

“In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'”

“Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beautiful of languages. It will do anything.”

“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”

“I admire people who dare to take the language, English, and understand it and understand the melody.”

“I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.”

“We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.”

“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.”

“I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.”

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

“Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who've all longed and lost, who've all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you're not really any different from everyone else.”

“I created myself. I have taught myself so much.”

“While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.”

“The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.”

“Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.”

“I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”