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We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American.

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
Black
Remarkable
Certain
Diversity
America
Thinks
Country
Countries
Midwesterner
Real
Atheism
Midwesterners
Really
Justice
Durham
Thinking
American
Kansas
Culture
Represent

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I speak a number of languages, but none are more beautiful to me than English.
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Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother.
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Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.
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People are too busy putting things under microscopes and so forth. Creativity is greater than the sum of its parts.
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You can see in others what they don't see in themselves and what the world doesn't see in them.
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We are not our brother’s keeper we are our brother and we are our sister. We must look past complexion and see community.
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Step off the road. Build yourself a brand new path.
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You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
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It's amazing. I can do anything. And do it well. Any good thing, I can do it. That's why I am who I am, yes, because God loves me and I'm amazed at it. I'm grateful for it.
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Growing up at my grandmother's table, she always had rice. She might do something as exotic as potatoes or spaghetti, but there was still always rice, just in case you needed a little rice fix.
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I think all poems are commissioned. They just come to me without somebody outside commissioning them. The idea comes and I will live with them 'til I get it as close to what I mean. I've never been totally satisfied. I've come close a few times.
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Don't bring negative to my door.
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Age is nothing waking up is everything.
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I'm a serious aficionada of country music - Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry. I've even written some songs. They haven't done anything of mine yet. But it's only a matter of time.
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I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.
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Ritie, don't worry 'cause you ain't pretty. Plenty pretty women I seen digging ditches or worse. You smart. I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.
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Being free is being able to accept people for what they are, and not try to understand all they are or be what they are.
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In order to be a mentor, and an effective one, one must care. You must care. You don't have to know how many square miles are in Idaho, you don't need to know what is the chemical makeup of chemistry, or of blood or water. Know what you know and care about the person, care about what you know and care about the person you're sharing with.
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You never get over the fear of writing.
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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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