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
Space
Appreciation
Means
Breathe
Live
Totally
Take
Consider
Mean
Air
Trying
Present
Work
Responsibility
Poetic
Existence
Immediate

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
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You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
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Christians already? It seems to me that it takes a lifetime of work.
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Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.
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You think you may not be heard. Speak anyway.
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One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.
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We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.
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To those who are given much, much is expected.
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I think we ought to give ourselves more time. We should be more patient with ourselves and with each other.
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The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
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Creativity or talent, like electricity, is something I don't understand but something I'm able to harness and use.
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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.
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All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy - but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that's how I am guided.
Maya Angelou
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I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that is your grandmother, that is your mother, that is your sister, that is you and that is me.
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Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.
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Every day offers you 10,000 reasons to cry, but if you can find just one reason to laugh then you will be all right.
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I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
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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.
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Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'
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I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.
Maya Angelou