Maya Angelou Quotes

Quotes by and about Maya Angelou

(Continued from her main entry on the site.)

Angelou: "Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud."

Angelou: "I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy."

Angelou: "I am always talking about the human condition - about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive."

Angelou: "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."

Angelou: "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

Angelou: "We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!"

Angelou: "Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."

Angelou: "I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression."

Angelou: "There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth."

Angelou: "All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us that we are all more alike than we are unalike."

Angelou: "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."

Angelou: "People will very often try to respond to you on the level on which you address them. So if you say, 'Aren't you wonderful!' ... people will try, even if they are not ... to lift themselves up to that."

Colette Bancroft: "Even on the telephone, she had enough charisma for a dozen people, her magnificent voice rolling like thunder. ... Once she was on stage ... she held every person in the hall in the palm of her graceful, strong hand."

Colette Bancroft: "She could turn [her own] experiences into something universal."

Harold Bloom: "Angelou achieves an almost unique tone that blends intimacy and detachment."

Oprah Winfrey: "Everyone marvels at [her] stamina - [her] ability to continue to be out there speaking, teaching and giving, giving, giving. We think, 'How does she do it? I need a nap!'"