Maya Angelou

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ – which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

I encourage you to live with life. Be courageous, adventurous. Give us a tomorrow, more than we deserve.

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.

I thought I’d be a success even back in the mailroom at William Morris. It was just inconceivable to me I couldn’t win it all.

When you’re successful, things have a momentum and you can’t tell if you have created the momentum or it’s creating you.

A successful person finds the right place for himself. But a successful leader finds the right place for others.

All you need is ignorance and confidence and the success is sure.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.

The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who do nothing and succeed.

I’ve always won, and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is.

I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one’s business on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.

The rich. You know why they’re so odd? Because they can afford to be.

I’ve become very successful over the years. I think I own among the greatest properties in the world.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

If you want to double your success rate, you need to double your failure rate.

To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.

It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.