Quotes by Maya Angelou

About Maya Angelou:

Maya Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

Maya Angelou

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

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Maya Angelou

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 ent...

Maya Angelou

At one time, you could sit on the Rue de la Paix in Paris or at the Habima Theater in Tel Aviv or in Medina and you could see a person come in, black, white, it didn't matter. You said, 'That's an American' because there's a readiness to smile and to...

Maya Angelou

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

Maya Angelou

Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.

Maya Angelou

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

Maya Angelou

While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man.

Maya Angelou

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Maya Angelou

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, ...

Maya Angelou

One of my lungs is half gone, and the other half, because I smoked for years, has a lesion. So I can't swim anymore and had the swimming pool covered over. Now it's what I call the dance pavilion, and so I and my friends sit out and put music on and ...

Maya Angelou

I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence.

Maya Angelou

I'm a serious aficionada of country music - Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry. I've even written some songs. They haven't done anything of mine yet. But it's only a matter of time.

Maya Angelou

I keep a hotel room in my town, although I have a large house. And I go there at about 5:30 in the morning, and I start working. And I don't allow anybody to come in that room. I work on yellow pads and with ballpoint pens. I keep a Bible, a thesauru...

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 how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

Maya Angelou
Motivational quotes by Maya Angelou, UberQuotes

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Maya Angelou

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. It's wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

Maya Angelou

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

Maya Angelou

I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly treated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them.

Maya Angelou

Author Bio

  • NameMaya Angelou
  • DescriptionAmerican author and poet
  • BornApril 4, 1928
  • DiedMay 28, 2014
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPoet; Actor; Dancer; Film Producer; Television Producer; Playwright; Film Director; Professor; Screenwriter; Writer; Essayist; Songwriter; Autobiographer
  • WorksI Know Why The Caged Bird Sings; On The Pulse Of Morning
  • AwardsMarian Anderson Award; National Women's Hall Of Fame