Writing Quotes by Maya Angelou

You never get over the fear of writing.

— Maya Angelou

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

— Maya Angelou

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

— Maya Angelou

Poetry is music written for the human voice.

— Maya Angelou

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

— Maya Angelou

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said that easy reading is damn hard writing.

— Maya Angelou

I write because I am a Black woman, listening attentively to her people.

— Maya Angelou

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

— Maya Angelou

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

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

— Maya Angelou

When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.

— Maya Angelou

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

— Maya Angelou

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

— Maya Angelou

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

— Maya Angelou

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the…

— Maya Angelou

We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.

— Maya Angelou

It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember…

— Maya Angelou

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that,…

— Maya Angelou

I also wear a hat or a very tightly pulled head tie when I write. I suppose I hope by doing that…

— Maya Angelou

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

If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution.…

— Maya Angelou

Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven…

— Maya Angelou

I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.'…

— Maya Angelou

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have…

— Maya Angelou

Find something you like, go into a room, close the door and read it aloud. Read it aloud. Everybody in the world…

— Maya Angelou

When asked how she knows when her writing is where she wants it to be: "I know when it's the best I…

— Maya Angelou

Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new…

— Maya Angelou

When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we…

— Maya Angelou

I love a statement by the apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians in the Bible. I think the Corinthians had been…

— Maya Angelou

By love I don't mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don't even mean romance. I mean…

— Maya Angelou

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we…

— Maya Angelou

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have…

— Maya Angelou

“When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants…

— Maya Angelou

I'm a writer and writers either have good memories or nothing at all.

— Maya Angelou

I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says, 'Maya, Maya Angelou, it's time.'

— Maya Angelou

I never have written every day. When I'm writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday…

— Maya Angelou

Try, start always at home. This is my encouragement to all writers, start at home. All virtues and vices begin at home,…

— Maya Angelou

“I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at…

— Maya Angelou

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.

— Maya Angelou

If I'm here, I'll be trying to be a better human being, a better writer, a better friend and a better beloved.

— Maya Angelou