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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou Quotes

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Famous Maya Angelou Quotes

“When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, briefly. Our eyes, briefly, see with a hurtful clarity. Our memory, suddenly sharpened, examines, gnaws on kind words unsaid, promised walks never taken. Great souls die and our reality, bound to them, takes leave of us. Our souls, dependent upon their nurture, now shrink, wizened. Our minds, formed and informed by their radiance, fall away. We are not so much maddened as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of dark, cold caves. And when great souls die, after a period peace blooms, slowly and always irregularly. Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration. Our senses, restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed. They existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.”

LifeWritingSoulDeathPoetryPeacePoetPoemPoemsWritersPoetsTreesSoulsMaya AngelouAmerican WritersI Shall Not Be MovedWhen Great Trees Fall
Author:Maya Angelou
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“When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we're capable of, how we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go on from darkness into darkness. I'm trying for that. But I'm also trying for the language. I'm trying to see how it can really sound. I really love language. I love it for wate it does for us, how it allows us to explain the pain and the glory, the nuances and delicacies of our existence. And then it allows us to laugh, allows us to show wit. Real wit is shown in language. We need language.”

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Author:Maya Angelou
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“I love a statement by the apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians in the Bible. I think the Corinthians had been writing to Paul, telling him that old men were chasing young women, nobody was tithing - and all that must have run Paul crazy. He wrote back and said, "If there be anything of good report, speak of these things." That's one of my principles.It's another discipline that I encourage myself to employ - to, as much as possible, say the courteous thing, and then be it.”

IfsThinkingMenWritingSaidBookRunningYoungSpeakPrinciplesCrazyDisciplineStatementsReportsOld ManYoung WomenChasingApostlesCourteousApostle PaulTithingCorinthians
Author:Maya Angelou
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“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.”

IfsWritingTryingMayTwoMightStuffWeekSeriousCatOkayBoringConvincedAwfulBoredSatMuseRatsTwo WeeksWriter's BlockPhenomenal Woman
Author:Maya Angelou
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“We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Not just how tall we are, or thin… but who we are internally… perhaps even spiritually. There’s something, which impels us to show our inner-souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.”

KnowsWantLifeWritingHumansSoulReasonShowsHuman BeingsWalksSucceedMountainOceanPaintDareImpulseWho We AreClimbsCourageousSwimTallExplainingLove Someone
Author:Maya Angelou
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“To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colors of a rainbow.”

WritingInspirationWould BeMotherFallPerfectColorMomMy MomMotherhoodClimbingRainbowMothers DayHurricanesBeing A MomBeing A MotherMotheringMother DaughterMother And DaughterHappy Mothers DayBest MotherInspirational MothersMother ProverbsMothers Day InspirationalInspirational MotherhoodGood Happy Mothers DayInspiring MotherhoodMother FlowerFunny MotherMom Knows BestInspirational MomYoung MotherJoys Of MotherhoodGood Mothers Day CardsMothers Day Cards
Book:The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou
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“...We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it's just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats - maybe it's imperative that we encounter the defeats - but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be.”

KnowsWritingBelieveMayTwoMotivationalI BelieveSoundResultsDeterminationStrongerPressureShoesDefeatExtremesEncountersProseDiamondDefeatedDirtCoalEssaysImperativesCrystalsGoody Two Shoes
Author:Maya Angelou
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“When asked how she knows when her writing is where she wants it to be: "I know when it's the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it's the best I can do. I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that."”

KnowsWantWritingMayArtI CanCan DoLeavingFinishedLife ChangingBeing The BestGreat ArtByeSaying NoI Can Do It
Author:Maya Angelou
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“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

InspirationalWritingStoriesWomenPowerfulGreaterBearsSocial JusticePositivityStorytellingAfrican AmericanMoving OnHard TimesAgonyBlack WomenInsperationalLoving LifeHave CourageRemember YouRemembers YouGreat WritersWriters And WritingTelling StoriesNovel WritingWriting By WritersGreat WritingWise WomenCagedAgonizingCreativity And WritingPhenomenal WomanInspiration To WriteInspirational CourageAspiring WritersCourage To LoveFamous WritersInspiring WritingStory WritersCourage To ChangeCreative WritersWriting From Famous AuthorsLove And CourageStory PeopleCaged BirdsI Know Why The Caged Bird SingsDefeated YouRemembering HerTelling Your StoryEveryone Has A StoryUntold StoriesCreating Stories
Author:Maya Angelou
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