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Quote by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou's memoir recounts her childhood in the American South during the 1930s and 1940s, highlighting her journey of self-discovery and the challenges she faced due to racial discrimination. The narrative delves into her experiences with poverty, abuse, and the search for her own identity, offering a poignant and inspiring look at the human spirit. more

Author

Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American author, poet, playwright, actress, and lecturer, known for her profound exploration of race, gender, and culture in her work. Her autobiographical works, including 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' which detailed her early life of poverty and sexual exploitation, have gained widespread acclaim. more

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“Just You There are so many voices shouting in the night So many sounds crashing into my life But every word they say just falls right through Because all I ever hear is you Faces talking, laughter in the room Lights are shining, everything in bloom But none of it is cutting through My world still ends and starts with you I walk these streets where love once grew Every step feels empty without you The city breathes but I don’t move I’m standing still, chasing you I’m surrounded but I’m alone In a crowd but far from home Since the moment you slipped away Nothing sounds the same You could forget me for the rest of your life I’d remember you till my last breath You could run to the edge of the world I’d go further just to feel you again Time can blur a thousand faces But your eyes stay clear and true When everything fades into noise It’s just you Yeah it’s just you There are beautiful things right in front of me Gold and colors everywhere I see But my eyes don’t care for any view They’re only searching out for you I could be followed by thousands of names Applause and echoes calling my name Still none of it feels real or true If I’m not alone with you I see people passing by Living loves and living lies I look at them but I’m see-through Because all I see is you Life keeps moving, I stay behind Trying to outrun my mind Since the day you walked away Everything fell out of place You could forget me for the rest of your life I’d remember you till my last breath You could disappear into new dreams I’d still be holding onto what we had left Years can wash away the pain But they never washed you loose In every crowded, empty room It’s just you Always just you You could surround yourself with new faces Fill your nights with different names You could laugh like I never existed Like our love was just a phase You could silence all our conversations Like they never meant a thing But every word you ever whispered Still lives inside of me I try to listen to the world outside But I’m deaf to every sound tonight Since your love slipped through my hands Nothing holds together like it can I’m breathing but I’m barely alive Just surviving, not getting by Since the moment I lost you I lost the rhythm too You could walk away and leave me behind I’d carry you wherever I go You could choose to forget what we were I’d hold every moment I know You could build a life without me Like I was never part of you But my heart only ever learned Just you Only you I look at them, I can’t see or hear No voice ever reaches here Crowded rooms feel cold and small Since we let ourselves fall If love is seasons then I know Why the warmth will never show You were the light, the bloom, the truth My beginning, my end, my you If I close my eyes, you’re still there If I breathe, you’re in the air Every prayer I never knew Was always leading back to you You could move on, start again Build a world where I don’t exist But my heart never learned how To forget the way you kissed Time can take almost everything But it couldn’t take the truth When the world becomes too loud It’s just you It’s always you I look at people, but I don’t see anyone I hear them talk, but I hear only you Spring never came back after you Just you Just you . . For Katusha”

“Phoenix sank to the desk chair and stared at her computer screen. “I don’t know. I’ve lived like this for so long, it’s who I am. Everything seems so stupid. Like, look at this girl,writing to Sasha. She’s all”—he spoke in a falsetto voice—“‘OMG!’ and ‘LOL!’ and ‘WTF?’ and ‘Girl, you should totes go out with Tyler in Telluride!’” He looked up at her.“You’re seventeen years old, and this is how seventeenyear-olds talk to each other. I’m a thousand years old, and this stuff is like alien-speak to me. If I found another Anabo,she’d be writing OMG and I’d be thinking, You’re f’ing kidding me.”

“It was true that he had many qualities I desired in the man of my dreams, but that didn’t erase the set of undesirable qualities within him. Based on the desired qualities, I had made him up as a person that he probably wasn’t in reality. If he was lovable, it didn’t mean that he couldn’t see me cry; if we were alike in many ways, it didn’t mean that he understood me every time; if he showed concern for me, it didn’t mean that he could never hurt me. He was just human, like I was, like everyone else was. I needed to stop putting him on a pedestal and accept him for who he was. I needed to shift my focus from my idea of him and an imagined future life with him to the real person and his willingness to let go of the idea of us being together in the future for a different reality.”

“Feeling lost, I wondered if I was being too sensitive for not being able to cut chords with people who didn’t think twice before leaving me or if they were too inhuman to cut me off like I never mattered to them. I wondered why my relationships always ended so abruptly and suddenly, or if I ignored the red flags for too long.”

“The wish, Geralt! Hurry up! What do you desire? Immortality? Riches? Fame? Power? Might? Privileges? Hurry, we haven’t any time!’ He was silent. ‘Humanity,’ she said suddenly, smiling nastily. ‘I’ve guessed, haven’t I? That’s what you want, that’s what you dream of! Of release, of the freedom to be who you want, not who you have to be. The djinn will fulfil that wish, Geralt. Just say it.”

“Then why are your eyes full of fear, Geralt of Rivia? Your hands are trembling, you are pale. Why? Do you fear the last–fourteenth–name engraved on the obelisk so much? If you wish I shall speak that name.’ ‘You don’t have to. I know what it is. The circle is closing, the snake is sinking its teeth into its own tail. That is how it must be. You and that name. And the flowers. For her and for me. The fourteenth name engraved in the stone, a name that I have spoken in the middle of the night and in the sunlight, during frosts and heat waves and rain. No, I’m not afraid to speak it now.’ ‘Then speak it.’ ‘Yennefer… Yennefer of Vengerberg.”