I've always written. There's a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother's papers were destroyed. I'd written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then. Maya Angelou Poetry
I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right. Maya Angelou Poetry
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. Maya Angelou Trust
You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise. Maya Angelou History
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. Maya Angelou Learning
My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. Maya Angelou Life
In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike. Maya Angelou Movies
I'm interested in women's health because I'm a woman. I'd be a darn fool not to be on my own side. Maya Angelou Health
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou History
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. Maya Angelou Learning
Once you appreciate one of your blessings, one of your senses, your sense of hearing, then you begin to respect the sense of seeing and touching and tasting, you learn to respect all the senses. Maya Angelou Respect
I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going. I have respect for the past, but I'm a person of the moment. I'm here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I'm at, then I go forward to the next place. Maya Angelou Best
Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history. Maya Angelou History
Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.' Maya Angelou History
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. Maya Angelou Respect