My life is my message.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken.

I want to thank The Beatles for almost single-handedly getting me out of writer’s block.

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.

I’m an introvert somewhat. There could be a room full of people, I’ll go stand in the corner.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

There’s not some idea I’m going to create a work that’s going to change everybody’s consciousness.

The influence of ‚Hidden Fortress‘ comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it’s told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

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.‘

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

Delhi means everything to me. This city has given me everything, and I love it.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

I think Bible principles are principles for life.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Life cannot be without relationship, but we have made it so agonizing and hideous by basing it on personal and possessive love. Can one love and yet not possess? You will find the true answer not in escape, ideals, beliefs but through the understanding of the causes of dependence and possessiveness.

You can’t go backward in life.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?

Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

I grew up in a funny way.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

I kinda live where I find myself.

It is natural to die as to be born.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.