Angelou Quotes

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

  Maya Angelou

  Powerful, Writing, Heart

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• When you learn, teach. When you get, give. Maya Angelou taught me that.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Giving, Taught, Great Teacher

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• When people tell you who they are, Maya Angelou famously advised, believe them. Just as importantly, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absolutely nothing about you.

  Maria Popova

  Integrity, Believe, People

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• I go to a hotel and try to get there by 5:30 in the morning. I keep a dictionary, a thesaurus, a bible, a deck of playing cards, a bottle of sherry, and stacks of yellow sticky pads. I shut myself in for six, seven hours. I have an arrangement with the hotel that no one may go in my room. After three or four months, they might slip notes under my door like, "Dear Ms. Angelou, please let us change the linens. We think they might be molding." It's probably true. I let them in if they promise not to touch anything other then the bed.

  Maya Angelou

  Morning, Thinking, Yellow

  Source: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

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• I love "Phenomenal Woman." The experiences she had of being African American in the U.S. - that itself is a task. I appreciate the hardships Maya Angelou went through for our generation. I'm super influenced by the black people that paved the way for us.

  Serena Williams

  Our Generation, People, Appreciate

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• I thought, "why don't we be innovative and create something nobody had ever done before?" It was a huge hit and we immediately did a sequel with Chris Rock, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner and Maya Angelou.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Rocks, Done, Innovative

  "Black Ancestry Matters on 'Finding Your Roots'". Interview with Alexandra Phanor-Faury, www.ebony.com. January 26, 2016.

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• Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet, historian, and civil rights activist who is hailed be many as one of the great voices of contemporary literature, believes a struggle only makes a person stronger.

  Michael N. Castle

  Believe, Struggle, Rights

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• 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

  Writing, Lord, Know How

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• I've learned to rely on the strength I inherited from all those who came before me-the grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and brothers who were tested with unimaginable hardships and still survived. 'I go forth alone, and stand as ten thousand,' Maya Angelou proclaimed in her poem 'Our Grandmothers.' When I move through the world, I bring all my history with me-all the people who paved the way for me are part of who I am.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspiring, Brother, Moving

  Oprah Winfrey (2014). “What I Know For Sure”, p.48, Macmillan

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• What stands out to me most about Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken; it's how she lived her life. She moved through the world with unshakable calm, confidence and a fierce grace.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Grace, Done, World

  "Oprah Winfrey On Dr. Maya Angelou: ‘She Will Always Be The Rainbow In My Clouds’". www.huffingtonpost.com. May 28, 2014.

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• Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

  Maya Angelou

  New York, Book, Forever

  "Let’s Stop Talking About Maya Angelou" by Jeff Steinmann, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 3, 2014.

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• Thank you so much for supporting me from the day I stepped foot into the music industry. It really means something to me to have Maya Angelou speak on my behalf. It also means a lot to have Oprah on my speed dial!

  Mary J. Blige

  Thank You, Mean, Feet

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• I am an English major in school with an emphasis in creative writing. I think hearing Maya Angelou speak at school last year was one of the best moments Stanford, at least, intellectually, had to offer.

  Fred Savage

  Writing, School, Thinking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Maya Angelou observed you cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Sadly,too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be climate in which new ways of thinking,perceiving, questioning are encouraged.

  John C. Maxwell

  Creativity, Thinking, Climate

  John C. Maxwell (2003). “Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work”, p.62, Hachette UK

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• You did the best you could, the best you knew how at the time." It was something like that. From Oprah on an Oprah show. Then I believe my quote above was from Maya Angelou on the Oprah show, not Oprah herself. I had heard it before but it was on Oprah's show again 1-7-09 and she said Maya had said it.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Believe, Said, Heard

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• From Maya Angelou I began to believe that I, too, someday, could be a writer, and I also learned how tortuous it can be to be in possession of a unique voice.

  Dirk Benedict

  Believe, Unique, Voice

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