Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelouwas an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells of her...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth4 April 1928
CitySt. Louis, MO
CountryUnited States of America
My son is the best thing that ever happened to me. And through me - to a lot of people.
Life offers us tickets to places which we have not knowingly asked for.
If we are honest and fair, then we are known by that. If we are not, alas, we are known by that as well. What we want to do is do right, but you have to say it, you have to show it, and not stop.
It's very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.
My encouragement to you is to go tomorrow to the library.
Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.
Hope does not take away your problems. It can lift you above them.
I come as one, but stand as 10,000.
Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Some day we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.
Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.
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.
The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.
If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.