Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou (1928-2014), born Marguerite Ann Johnson, was an American writer, novelist, poet, memoirist, and actress, best known for multivolume memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It was the first volume of her autobiography published in 1970, which recounts her harrowing experience as a black child in the US South. The other six volumes of this work are Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013).She held faculty positions at various US universities, US inaugural poet (1992), toured Europe as cast member of Porgy and Bess, and sang in New York nightclubs. She also joined Harlem Writers Guild and edited African Review in Ghana.
Wisdom & Quotes
- To be left alone on the tightrope of youth unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. It becomes a constant battle with the superior forces of maturity.
- There is no rationale that defends it and no attack that dissolves it.
- I believe talent is like electricity. We do not understand electricity. We use it. Electricity makes no judgment. You can plug into it, and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going... or you can electrocute a person with it. ... I think talent is like that.
Edip Cansever