Maya Angelou

I’m not a writer who teaches. I’m a teacher who writes.

Maya Angelou

I’m really saddened by the attempts to separate and polarize. This is a time when we have hungry people, people out of work, and people out of spirit. This is a time where we need to uplift, not to separate.

Maya Angelou

I’m very, very serious – I’m serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

Maya Angelou

I’m young as morning and fresh as dew. Everybody loves me and so do you.

Maya Angelou

I’ve had people explain to me what one of my poems meant, and I’ve been surprised that it means that to them. If a person can use a poem of mine to interpret her life or his life, good. I can’t control that. Nor would I want to.

Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

Maya Angelou

I’ve learned that forgiving is one of the greatest gifts that I can give myself.

Maya Angelou

I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love – for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet love exists. I’m grateful to know that it exists.

Maya Angelou

I’m grateful to intelligent people…That doesn’t mean educated. That doesn’t mean intellectual. I mean really intelligent. What black old people used to call ‘mother wit’ means intelligence that you had in your mother’s womb. That’s what you rely on. You know what’s right to do.

Maya Angelou

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

Maya Angelou