Maya Angelou

The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder – in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God.

Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

We need much less than we think we need.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

First of all, I never strive for identity. That’s something that just has happened automatically as a result, I think, of just putting things together, tearing things apart and putting it together my own way, and somehow I guess the individual comes through eventually.

Music is your experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.

Always look ahead, but never look back.

I started in New Orleans music and played all through the history of Jazz.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

The first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.

The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.

I write songs about real things… The subject dictates the mood and it goes from there, really.

The arranger doesn’t get any royalties, but I had so much fun doing it.

Sometimes there are no gigs, but the main thing is still the music.

A Les Paul feels like a guitar and I play differently on that and I sound too much like someone else.

By and large Jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn’t want your daughter to associate with.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be Jazz.