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" I'm not a writer who teaches. I'm a teacher who writes. "

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" I was born in St. Louis but lived there just for a few minutes in my life. "

" There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. "

" I love the melodies in the Old Testament, how preachers highlight them when they read from the Scripture. But I was influenced forever by the New Testament. I love the Beatitudes, informing us that the meek shall inherit the earth. "

" Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less. "

" While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man. "

" The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently. "

" If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. "

" There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. "

" One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping. "

" I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to. "

" My mom was a terrible parent of young children. And thank God - I thank God every time I think of it - I was sent to my paternal grandmother. Ah, but my mother was a great parent of a young adult. "

" Of course, there are those critics - New York critics as a rule - who say, 'Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it's good but then she's a natural writer.' Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language. "

" Eating is so intimate. It's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you're inviting a person into your life. "

" When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, 'Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.' "

" The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair. "

" I wasn't a pretty girl. I was six feet tall at 15, you know. "

" Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. "

" I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens. Not just to the person or persons for whom I'm praying, but also something wonderful happens to me. I'm grateful that I'm heard. "

" I think that that's the wisest thing - to prevent illness before we try to cure something. "

" I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition. "

" Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. "

" Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.' "

" I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. "

" I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with 'Porgy and Bess,' the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places. "

" Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery. "

" My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. "

" Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who've all longed and lost, who've all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you're not really any different from everyone else. "

" I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me. "

" I've read everything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote; my brother and I memorized whole chapters of 'You Can't Go Home Again' and 'Look Homeward, Angel.' "

" Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more. "