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Maya Angelou Quotes about Writing

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You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You

You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.

Cancer, Writing, Talking

"Women Are Angrier Than Ever Before - And They're Doing Something About It" by Melissa Harris-Perry, www.elle.com. March 9, 2018.

What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.

Cat, Writing, Two

"Famous Writers Share How They Handle Writer’s Block" by Jeryl Brunner, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 29, 2015.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.

Reading, Writing, Giving

FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Apr 12, 2013

I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine ... before she realizes she's reading.

Book, Reading, Writing

Twitter post from Jul 31, 2015

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans — because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone- because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Not just how tall we are, or thin… but who we are internally… perhaps even spiritually. There’s something, which impels us to show our inner-souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

Life, Ocean, Writing

When I'm writing, I write. And then it's as if the muse is convinced that I'm serious and says, 'Okay. Okay. I'll come.'

Writing, Serious, Muse

"Famous Writers Share How They Handle Writer’s Block" by Jeryl Brunner, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 29, 2015.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.

Ocean, Writing, Swim

When the storyteller tells the truth, she reminds us that human beings are more alike than unalike... A story is what it's like to be a human being-to be knocked down and to miraculously arise. Each one of us has arisen, awakened. We do rise.

Writing, Stories, Down And

By love I don't mean indulgence. I do not mean sentimentality. And in this instance, I don't even mean romance. I mean that condition that allowed humans to dream of God.That condition that allowed the "dumb" to write spirituals and Russian songs and Irish lilts. That is love, and it's so much larger than anything I can conceive.

Dream, Song, Writing

Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. December 2000.

Hold those things that tell your history and protect them. During slavery, who was able to read or write or keep anything? The ability to have somebody to tell your story to is so important. It says: 'I was here. I may be sold tomorrow. But you know I was here.'

Life Changing, Writing, Important

When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.

Writing, Hair, Mind

"Maya Angelou: How I Write". Interview with Noah Charney, www.thedailybeast.com. April 10, 2013.

Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication.

Communication, Writing, Mean

"Maya Angelou: 'I make no apologies for writing a cookbook'". Interview with John Crace, www.theguardian.com. November 2, 2011.

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

Powerful, Writing, Heart

Putting down on paper what you have to say is an important part of writing, but the words and ideas have to be shaped and cleaned, cleaned as severely as a dog cleans a bone, cleaned until there's not a shred of anything superfluous.

Dog, Writing, Ideas

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.

Positive, Writing, Use

Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot (1989). “Conversations with Maya Angelou”

Making a decision to write was a lot like deciding to jump into a frozen lake.

Inspiring, Writing, Lakes

Dr. Maya Angelou (2009). “The Heart of a Woman”, p.53, Random House

I'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.

Art, Writing, Prose Poetry

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, 'I'd like to write about that.' Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

Running, Writing, Thinking

When asked how she knows when her writing is where she wants it to be: "I know when it's the best I can do. It may not be the best there is. Another writer may do it much better. But I know when it's the best I can do. I know that one of the great arts that the writer develops is the art of saying, 'No. No, I'm finished. Bye.' And leaving it alone. I will not write it into the ground. I will not write the life out of it. I won't do that."

Art, Life Changing, Writing

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

Inspiring, Writing, Poetry

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said that easy reading is damn hard writing.

Reading, Writing, Hawthorne

Source: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.

Life, Communication, Writing

Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot (1989). “Conversations with Maya Angelou”

I will write on the pages of history what I want them to say. I will be myself. I will speak my own name.

Writing, Names, Want

I 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.

Brother, Writing, Thinking

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool - and I'm not any of those - to say that I don't write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

Liars, Hypocrite, Writing

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