American - Poet | April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014
I will not sit in a room with black people when the N word is used. I know it was meant to belittle a person, so I will not sit there and have that poison put on me. Now a black person can say, 'Oh, you know, I can use this word because I'm black.'
Maya Angelou
PeopleMeBlackYouI CanPerson
I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money.' Yes, I think everybody should be paid handsomely; I insist on it, and I pay people who work for me, or with me, handsomely.
WorkBlack And WhiteMoneyPeopleMe
I could fall in love with a sumo wrestler if he told stories and made me laugh. Obviously, it would be easier if someone was African-American and lived next door and went to the same church. Because then I wouldn't have to translate.
LoveMeDoorChurchLaughSomeone
During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.
WorldHumanityYouBadKnowHuman
To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That's what Norman Mailer did. That's what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that's what I do - that's what I mean to do.
TogetherWallMeanBallUpAgainst
I created myself. I have taught myself so much.
MyselfCreatedMuchTaught
In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.
LifeLiveIdeasGetDifferentCover
Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, 'I'd like to write about that.' Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.
MindThinkSearchYouSituationSay
When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.
DreamsI AmMeIdeasRichMusicians
It's good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.
GoodHelpRememberStrangersForget
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.
MorningHeartTimeLightPastBack
If you're a human being, you can attempt to do what other human beings have done. We don't understand talent any more than we understand electricity.
TalentElectricityYouDoneHuman
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