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I will write on the pages of history what I want them to say. I will be myself. I will speak my own name.

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
Pages
Name
Names
History
Speak
Write
Writing

More quotes by Maya Angelou

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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.
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And if a person is religious, I think it's good, it helps you a bit. But if you're not, at least you can have the sense that there is a condition inside you which looks at the stars with amazement and awe.
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I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy, and to give nothing less than courtesy.
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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.
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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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People trying to separate people rather than bring us together... please. You don't just see it in America. It's all over the world.
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I did what I knew.. when I knew better, I did better
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Everything costs and costs the earth.
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Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.
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What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.
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If I'm going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don't just go bumbling over things.
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A single fantasy can transform a million realities.
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You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative. '
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I certainly do not adore the writer's discipline. I have lost lovers, endangered friendships, and blundered into eccentricity, impelled by a concentration which usually is to be found only in the minds of people about to be executed in the next half hour.
Maya Angelou
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Intelligence always had a pornographic influence on me.
Maya Angelou
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How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
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The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.
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In a long meter hymn, a singer - they call it 'lays out a line.' And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can't wedge a pin between it.
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When I try to describe myself to God I say, 'Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?' And I almost always get God's attention.
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I am convinced that most people do not grow up ... our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias.
Maya Angelou