Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

We do the best we can with what we know, and when we know better, we do better.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, 'I'd like to write about that.' Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere.

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.

The first thing I do in the morning when I awaken is say, 'Thank you, Lord!' I'm grateful to be alive, and I'm going to try to tell the truth as well as I know and tell it as eloquently as I can so that people can hear it.

I long for the time when all human history is taught as one history, because it really is.