Poetry and music are the best at the highest level of the human mind. Out of poetry, out of their need for poetry, human beings have developed the idea of God. And so when we sing, when we dance, when we speak poetry we are speaking out of God's mouth, each other out of the music from God's heart.

Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.

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.

Age is nothing; waking up is everything.

When we decide to be happy we accept the responsibility to bring happiness to someone else.

I had to trust life and believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.

I am not competing with anyone other than myself. I want to be excellent at whatever I do.