Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.
Maya AngelouWhen I want to think about what would be the right thing to do, the fair thing to do, the wise thing to do, I can just think of my grandmother. I can always hear her say, "Now sister, you know what's right. Just do right!"
Maya AngelouYou can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right.
Maya AngelouI'm a descendant of someone bought and sold, and brought in 1619 in what was to become the United States.
Maya AngelouI know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.
Maya AngelouWe write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans โ because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. Thatโs why we paint, thatโs why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Not just how tall we are, or thinโฆ but who we are internallyโฆ perhaps even spiritually. Thereโs something, which impels us to show our inner-souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.
Maya Angelou