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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You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust, I'll rise.
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When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'
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To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision.
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My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.
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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.
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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
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Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.
Maya Angelou
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We are the victims of the world's most comprehensive robbery. Life demands a balance. It's all right if we do a little robbing now.
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As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may not remember your name but they will never forget the way you made them feel.
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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
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Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.
Maya Angelou
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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.
Maya Angelou
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If more Africans had eaten missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.
Maya Angelou
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You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.
Maya Angelou
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I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.
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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.
Maya Angelou
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The root cause of all the problems we have in the world today is ignorance of course. But most, polarization.
Maya Angelou
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Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.
Maya Angelou
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Life loves the liver of it.
Maya Angelou
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Happiness is a chance to talk to a friend, to hear good music, to have a good glass of wine. Happiness is a chance to be myself and to find people with whom I agree or who I don't agree but I can learn something.
Maya Angelou