01c. 1971 ADI know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
02c. 1971 ADThe poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
03c. 1971 ADI've always written. There's a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother's papers were destroyed. I'd written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
04c. 1971 ADHuman beings love poetry. They don't even know it sometimes... whether they're the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber... they're listening to poetry.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
05c. 1971 ADI liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry - writing at writing.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
06c. 1971 ADI wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
07c. 1971 ADI find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best - of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
08c. 1971 ADI'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
10c. 1971 ADI long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
11c. 1971 ADI've read everything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote; my brother and I memorized whole chapters of 'You Can't Go Home Again' and 'Look Homeward, Angel.'Maya Angelou / quote ↗
12c. 1971 ADInformation helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who've all longed and lost, who've all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you're not really any different from everyone else.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
13c. 1971 ADPoliticians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
14c. 1971 ADThe love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
15c. 1971 ADPrejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.Maya Angelou / quote ↗
