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" Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable. "

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" Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage. "

" A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. "

" That's the biggest gift I can give anybody: 'Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you're doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.' "

" Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader. "

" Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It's very clear. "

" I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life. "

" You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. "

" I don't think there's such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind. "

" When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich. "

" A black person grows up in this country - and in many places - knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone. "

" If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die. "

" At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice. "

" The terrorist action of 9/11 gave birth to President Obama's entry to the White House. Not directly, but indirectly. "

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

" If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart. "

" The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight. "

" If you were the President of the United States or the Queen of England - you couldn't have a person who would be more protective than my mother was for me. Which meant really that I could dare to do all sorts of things. "

" I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. "

" I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I'm a human being, too. And I'm on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles. "

" History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. "

" When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. "

" I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they'll do wonders. I count on them. "

" I'm working at trying to be a Christian, and that's serious business. It's like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy - it's serious business. "

" I like chicken a lot because chicken is generous - that is to say, it's obedient. It will do whatever you tell it to do. "

" I am never proud to participate in violence, yet I know that each of us must care enough for ourselves that we can be ready and able to come to our own defense when and wherever needed. "

" I've conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I've sang and danced at La Scala! "

" I'm considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I've never been bored in my life. "

" I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine... before she realizes she's reading. "

" When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one - it's the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky - in the big cities, too, for that matter. "

" When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess. "