Quotes from Maya Angelou

Last year changed its seasons subtly, stripped its sultry winds for the reds of dying leaves, let gelid drips of winter ice melt onto a warming earth and urged the dormant bulbs to brave the pain of spring. We, loving, above the whim of time, did not notice. Alone. I remember now.

we begin to stop in order simply to begin again.

It's in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

How often must we butt to head Mind to ass flank to nuts cock to elbow hip to toe soul to shoulder confront ourselves in our past.

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.

Cause I'm a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That's me.

Soft you day, be velvet soft, My true love approaches, Look you bright, you dusty sun, Array your golden coaches. Soft you wind, be soft as silk, My true love is speaking. Hold you birds, your silver throats, His golden voice I'm seeking. Come you death, in haste, do come, My shroud of black be weaving, Quiet my heart, be deathly quiet, My true love is leaving.

There is a silent scream, which tears through the veins, separating the muscles, pinching the nerves, yet the body seems to remain immobile.

I'm a feminist. I've been a female for a long time now. It'd be stupid not to be on my own side.

If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned, pricks most deeply and draws more blood.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

In that second I was wounded. My mind struck a truth as an elbow can strike a table edge. A poor, uneducated servant in Africa was so secure he could ignore established White rudeness. No Black American I had ever known knew that security. Our tenure in the United States, though long and very hard-earned, was always so shaky, we had developed patience as a defense, but never as aggression.

Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleeve to peer into my eyes while I within deny their threats and answer them with lies

I shuddered to think that while we wanted that flag dragged into the mud and sullied beyond repair, we also wanted it pristine, its white stripes, summer cloud white. Watching it wave in the breeze of a distance made us nearly choke with emotion. It lifted us up with its promise and broke our hearts with its denial.

But what mother and daughter understand each other, or even have the sympathy for each other's lack of understanding?

And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.

We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.

His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age, but his face believed the freshness of his words, and I had no heart nor art to drag him back to the reeking reality of our life and times.

She would have been more surprised than I had she taken me in her arms and wept at losing me. Her world was bordered on all sides with work, duty, religion and her place. I don't think she ever knew that a deep-brooding love hung over everything she touched.

In a time of secret wooing Today prepares tomorrow's ruin Left knows not what right is doing My heart is torn asunder. In a time of furtive sighs Sweet hellos and goodbyes Half-truths told and entire lies My conscience echoes thunder. In a time when kingdoms come Joy is brief as summer's fun Happiness its race has run Then pain stalks in to plunder.

I left the room because, and only because, we had said all we could say. The unsaid words pushed roughly against the thoughts that we had no crafts to verbalize, and crowded the room to uneasiness.

When I tried to explain how his generosity afforded me the opportunity to improve my writing skills, he shrugged his shoulders and said, I manage artists who make more in one night than you have ever made in a year. Yet I know no one more talented than you. His patronage was a gift as welcome as found money bearing no type of identification.

When I think about myself, I almost laugh myself to death, My life had 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.