In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

You can’t build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I’m not writing ‚The A-Team‘ – if there’s a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing little things well.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

Bad men are full of repentance.

You give before you get.

I have never felt that the one thing that I am ‚known for‘ is what I am.

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Every three months, I’ll say, ‚Honey, I think I should learn how to cook‘.

The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.

I kinda live where I find myself.

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

I have had some cosmetic surgery, especially after I lost weight and stuff, and I’ve had my breasts lifted – but not injected. That would scare me to death, anyway.

I first found delight in the Sabbath many years ago when, as a busy surgeon, I knew that the Sabbath became a day for personal healing. By the end of each week, my hands were sore from repeatedly scrubbing them with soap, water, and a bristle brush. I also needed a breather from the burden of a demanding profession.

If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.

I’ve done the bad-boy thing. It was fun for a good three months. But the thing about bad boys is, you have to keep in mind, you’re never gonna marry a bad boy.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Every day we have plenty of opportunities to get angry, stressed or offended. But what you’re doing when you indulge these negative emotions is giving something outside yourself power over your happiness. You can choose to not let little things upset you.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

You can’t be happy by doing something groovy.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Great acts are made up of small deeds.

Think not that humility is weakness; it shall supply the marrow of strength to thy bones. Stoop and conquer; bow thyself and become invincible.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

The challenge is to stay cool enough to handle the pressure in the moment so that you can succeed in the future.

Pilots take no special joy in walking. Pilots like flying.

When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

I already am a product.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.

Real art has been… what’s the word? Kidnapped? No, that’s not it. But, OK, kidnapped by business.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

I was a grade B housewife, maybe a B minus. But when I got time to write, I would be unable to finish a sentence. I had anxiety attacks. Partly it was a way of personifying the situation because I couldn’t breathe. I was surrounded by people and by duties. I was a housewife and the children’s mother, and I was judged on how I performed those roles.