The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Always in the black spirituals there's that promise that things are going to be better, by and by. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like. — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham,… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been living in a… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The whites were really brutishly ignorant, blitheringly, so they killed people sometimes - just came into the African-American community and maimed people… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money.' Yes, I think everybody should be… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas,… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St.… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
A woman needs someone she can trust, someone who laughs when she laughs, but who has different ideas so she can learn… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I, with millions of other Americans, have the same dream Martin Luther King Jr. had; when I wake up I wish some… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Soft you day, be velvet soft, My true love approaches, Look you bright, you dusty sun, Array your golden coaches. Soft you… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
“The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs... I knew that my heart would break… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The needs of a society determine its ethics, and in the Black American ghettos the hero is that man who is offered… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
“Black females, for the most part, know by the time they are ten years old that the world is not much concerned… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
If on Judgement Day I were summoned by St. Peter to give testimony to the used-to-be sheriff's act of kindness, I would… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
“The bright hours when the young rebelled against the descending sun had to give way to twenty-four-hour periods called “days” that were… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in Black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
It is imperative that young white men and women study the black American history. It is imperative that blacks and whites study… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
A black person grows up in this country - and in many places - knowing that racism will be as familiar as… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
My great blessing is my son, but I have daughters. I have white ones and Black ones and fat ones and thin… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I will not sit in a room with black people when the N word is used. I know it was meant to… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
The black kids, the poor white kids, Spanish-speaking kids, and Asian kids in the US - in the face of everything to… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
I've still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa,… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Black women have not historically stood in the pulpit, but that doesn't undermine the fact that they built the churches and maintain… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from… — Maya Angelou Copy Share Image
Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently — Maya Angelou Copy Share
If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
“You are very kind and very intelligent and those elements are not always found together. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and my… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
I agreed a long time ago, I would not live at any cost. If I am moved or forced away from what I think… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
Intelligence is a separate gift, for the benefit of students, so that they may think of themselves as intellectual and not very intelligent, or… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
“You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still, like dust,… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
I'm working at trying to be a Christian, and that's serious business. It's like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
Sunday, if I'm lucky, I'll go to church or listen to some good spiritual advice on the television or on the radio. I take… — Maya Angelou Copy Share
