Maya Angelou

I was born in St. Louis but lived there just for a few minutes in my life.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

I thank God I'm myself and for the life I'm given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

Don't let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don't whine. You can be brought low, that's OK, but don't be reduced by them. Just say, 'That's life.'

I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I'm a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself - all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

Life loves the liver of it.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

In a magazine, one can get - from cover to cover - 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.