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In their own words

Maya Angelou quotes

214 quotations, each verified against its source and credited to the work it comes from — the wording as Maya Angelou wrote or said it, not as the internet passes it around. Page 9 of 9.

Illustrated portrait of Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

My pretty Black brother was my Kingdom Come.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 4
Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there.
A Black veteran (quoted by Angelou) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 27
Like most children, I thought if I could face the worst danger voluntarily, and triumph, I would forever have power over it.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 2
If you ask a Negro where he's been, he'll tell you where he's going.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 25
God is love. Just worry about whether you're being a good girl, then He will love you.
Annie Henderson (dialogue) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 12
Knowing Momma, I knew that I never knew Momma.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 25
Bailey was the greatest person in my world.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 4
I swear to God, I rather you have a good mind than a cute behind.
Uncle Tommy (dialogue) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 13
Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 34
I believe most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 35
At eleven years old, death is more unreal than frightening.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 22
Sympathy is next to shit in the dictionary, and I can't even read.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 26
Every person I knew had a hellish horror of being “called out of his name.”
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 16
And my seven-year-old world humpty-dumptied, never to be put back together again.
Angelou (narration) · Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Chapter 12

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