I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.
I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La Scala!
I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine... Before she realizes she's reading.
I like chicken a lot because chicken is generous - that is to say, it's obedient. It will do whatever you tell it to do.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.
Don't get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that - if you dare. But get older because it's fun!
I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.
I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.
If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.
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.
The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
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.
At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.
The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.