Quote

I try to live what I consider a poetic existence. That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work.

Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou
Age: 86 †
Born: 1928
Born: April 4
Died: 2014
Died: May 28
Author
Autobiographer
Comedian
Dancer
Essayist
Film Director
Film Producer
Human Rights Activist
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Politician
St. Louis
Missouri
Marguerite Annie Johnson
Marguerite Johnson
Marguerite Ann Johnson
Marguerite Anne Johnson
Means
Breathe
Live
Totally
Take
Consider
Mean
Air
Trying
Present
Work
Responsibility
Poetic
Existence
Immediate
Space
Appreciation

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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We can be better, we can be wiser, we can be more kind. Yes we have to change. We have to grow up and stop acting like 10 years old. Yes there is much to do, much to see, much to go into.
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Depending on who I am talking about or who's talking through me - if the person is a kind of hip-hop, or rhythm and blues person, or if the person is a kind of old-fashion gothic, meaning gothic attitude, then that will determine what form the poem will take.
Maya Angelou
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I wouldn't trade anything for my story now.
Maya Angelou
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I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water.
Maya Angelou
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Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
Maya Angelou
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My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.
Maya Angelou
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Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate, to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters
Maya Angelou
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My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive
Maya Angelou
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Every Day you should reach out and touch someone
Maya Angelou
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I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya Angelou
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The truth is you never can leave home. You take it with you everywhere you go. It's under your skin. It moves the tongue or slows it, colors the thinking, impedes upon the logic.
Maya Angelou
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I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.
Maya Angelou
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If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
Maya Angelou
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Age is nothing waking up is everything.
Maya Angelou
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In all my work, I try to say - 'You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?'
Maya Angelou
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Raising kids is like nailing Jell-O to a tree.
Maya Angelou
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The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my feet without ceasing into the camp of the righteous and into the tents of the free.
Maya Angelou
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Hope is born again in the faces of children.
Maya Angelou
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Don't let anybody raise you. You've been raised.
Maya Angelou
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I do not need to know all things. I remind myself that it is sufficient that I know what I know and know that without believing that I will always know what I know or that what I know will always be true.
Maya Angelou