Literary Birthday – 4 April – Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born 4 April 1928, and died 28 May 2014.

12 Remarkable Maya Angelou Quotes

1. The honorary duty of a human being is to love.
2. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
3. Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.
4. Talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it.
5. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
6. There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.
7. My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
8. Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
9. Life loves the liver of it.
10. The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
11. When you learn, teach. When you get, give.
12. Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

Suggested: Maya Angelou’s Writing Process

Maya Angelou was an African-American author, playwright, poet, dancer, actress, and singer. She published six autobiographies, five books of essays, and several books of poetry. Her career spanned more than 50 years and she published 36 books. She received many awards and more than 30 honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou was best known for her series of autobiographies, which focused on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first in the series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Source for Image: Clinton Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelou_at_Clinton_inauguration_(cropped_2).jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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