Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

The dread of futility has been my life-long plague.

I want to be a good human being. I'm doing my best, and I'm working at it.

I don't know how much longer I'll be around. I'll probably be writing when the Lord says, 'Maya, Maya Angelou, it's time.'

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

Reduce your humanity through what Jules Feiffer called little murders. The minute I hear someone trying to demean me, I know that that person means to have my life. And I will not give it to them. When a person commits these little murders, and then you catch him or her at it, he or she might say, "Oh, I didn't mean it." But make no mistake: It is an assassination attempt.

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer.