Maya D'angelo Quotes & Sayings

I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold-that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go.' — Maya Angelou

There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I'd agree with that, but I think everybody should do that. I think the chef and the baker and the candlestick maker - I think everybody should be hoping to make it a better world. — Maya Angelou

I'd be a dumbass if I didn't plan for every contingency. — Maya Banks

If you know that youth is dying on the run and my daughter trades dope stories with your son we'd better see what all our fearing and our jeering and our crying and our lying brought about. Take Time Out. — Maya Angelou

There were worse things than death, as she'd discovered. Sometimes living took far more courage. Facing another day. Enduring. Those things took strength. Far more than dying. — Maya Banks

Right about now, he'd like to have a stamp that said "Mine, stay the hell away" to put right on her forehead. — Maya Banks

He wrapped one arm around her waist, and cupped her nape with his other hand. This time when he kissed her there was none of the restraint she'd seen in the past. It was like kissing an inferno.
Hot, breathless, so overwhelming that her senses shattered. — Maya Banks

I couldn't tell fact from fiction,
Or if the dream was true
My only sure prediction
In this world was you.
I'd touch your features inchly. Beard love and dared the cost, The sented spiel reeled me unreal And I found my senses lost. — Maya Angelou

He found himself playing the love-sick fool vying for a crumb of attention or approval from Genevieve. Anything to make her smile. Make her happy. He'd give her the damn moon if that was what it took. — Maya Banks

Disapproval. "If you weren't already down and out I'd kick your ass for saying that. I will always be here when you need me. God knows you've been there for me countless times." They all turned when they heard a car pull up. — Maya Banks

I understood that now. I wished I could have understood it then. I wished I could have said something in that last moment, before he let go.
He'd told me it was okay. His last words to me.
Why couldn't they have been my last words to him? — Kelley Armstrong

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I swear I don't know what to do with you, Steele. You are forever keeping me off balance. Just about the time I think I have you figured out, you do something that completely changes everything." "Good," he said in a smug tone. "I'd hate to think I was becoming predictable. — Maya Banks

Like I'm all powerful. Like I'm the only man. Like if you ever look at another man like that, I'd kill him. — Maya Banks

How many men can honestly say a woman has walked their heart?" he asked. "But I can. And if you'll have me, I'd like you to stay there." Tears welled in Ceony's eyes. She didn't blink them away. Emery reached into his pocket and pulled from it a loop of white and violet paper about the width of his fist, made of dozens of tiny, crisscrossing links. Not a spell, just something crafted to be beautiful. From it hung a gold ring that glimmered rose in the sunlight. A diamond carved in the shape of a raindrop sat at its center, flanked on either side by a small emerald. The paper magician slipped the ring off the paper loop and turned it in his hands. Dropping to one knee, he said, "Ceony Maya Twill, will you marry me?" THE — Charlie N. Holmberg

Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I'd listen to Italian music. — Maya Angelou

I've always written. There's a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother's papers were destroyed. I'd written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then. — Maya Angelou

I'm interested in women's health because I'm a woman. I'd be a darn fool not to be on my own side. — Maya Angelou

I thought if war did not include killing, I'd like to see one every year. — Maya Angelou

And I not only have the right to stand up for myself, but I have the responsibility. I can't ask somebody else to stand up for me if I won't stand up for myself. And once you stand up for yourself, you'd be surprised that people say, "Can I be of help?" — Maya Angelou

He also knew that this woman was different from all the women who'd come before her. That part scared the shit out of him and excited him all at the same time. What if she was the one? That woman who, when a man saw her, he was instantly struck with the knowledge that he was done for. Like Mia was for Gabe. Like Bethany was for Jace. The one.'
Ash — Maya Banks

He'd never get over her. He knew that without hesitation or doubt. He loved her. As deeply as it was possible to love another person. And God, he wanted her. Every day. In hit life. As much a part of him as he would be of her. — Maya Banks

My attitude is born out of necessity. I've made mistakes. I've made decisions I regretted. I know what it's like to live with regret. I live with it everyday. But if I let it take over, I'd never get out of bed in the morning. — Maya Banks

we were right-handed into a dully furnished living room. L.D. — Maya Angelou

Now wasn't the time for emotional outbursts, but when they were safe
and they would be because she believed him without reservation
then she'd tell him what she thought about the man he was. The man she wanted.
And if he walked away, she'd never have any regrets. Love was a gift, but it was up to the recipient to accept and cherish or to reject the offering. All she could do was give unreservedly. And for the first time since her assault, she realized that she could give something she'd never thought to give again. Her trust and her love. — Maya Banks

I love you," she whispered. "I told myself I wouldn't make it hard, that I'd never breathe those words. But 'tis harder for me to go without saying them. I need to give them to you. — Maya Banks

She touched a part of him he'd thought was inaccessible. A part that had been jealously guarded for years. And she'd gotten there with no effort whatsoever. She'd walked into his life and heart like she belonged. — Maya Banks

I'll never know why it was important to him that the couple (he said it later that he'd never seen them before) would take a picture of the whole Mr. Johnson back to Little Rock.
He must have been tired of being crippled, as prisoners tire of penitentiary bars and the guilty tire of blame. The high topped shoes and the cane, his uncontrollable muscles and thick tongue, and the looks he suffered of either contempt or pity had simply worn him out, and for one afternoon, one part of an afternoon, he wanted no part of them.
I understood and felt closer to him at that moment than ever before or since. — Maya Angelou

I'll cry if I want to. You will cease ordering
me about!"
He raised an eyebrow. "You dare to issue
me orders?"
She flushed, but at least she wasn't crying
any longer.
"Now tell me about this brand on your
thigh. Your father's crest. I'd like to see it."
176/756
She went crimson and she backed up a
step until her back met with the ledge of the
window. "I will not do something so indecent
as to show you my leg!"
"When we're married, I'll see more than
that," he said mildly.
"Married? Married? I'm not marrying you,
Laird. I'm not marrying anyone. Not yet
anyway. — Maya Banks

Do you know how impossible it is to ignore that woman? I'd have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to notice. — Maya Banks

The earliest dated monument yet discovered in Tikal and all of the Maya lowlands, Stela 29, has a Long Count date of 8.12.14.13.15, which translates to A.D. 292. — David Roberts

He did and said all the right things. Things that went straight to her heart, and worse, they inspired the one thing that she'd given up along time ago. Hope. — Maya Banks

Gabe thinks I look sexy,' she announced when Jace stopped in front of them. 'And he totally said you'd fuck me in these shoes.' She stopped and frowned, her thoughts suddenly muddled. 'Or maybe it was Mia who said you'd fuck me. Either way, I wanna be fucked in these shoes. — Maya Banks

You think I hate you, but that's not true, Rusty, and if you ever actually lowered your hackles around me you'd realize that I only want to make sure you're safe. — Maya Banks

Was he demanding? Hell yes, but he wasn't selfish. He took. He was ruthless in his demands. But he gave her back so much. Not just materially but emotionally, though he'd likely deny he did any such thing. — Maya Banks

Though Tikal may have been settled by at least 600 B.C., most of the city's edifices were built during what is called the Classic period of Maya history, from A.D. 250 to 900. — David Roberts

Chloe had her knees pulled up, one arm wrapped around them. Her other hand was entwined with Derek's. He leaned back against the tree. Slumping, as if it was holding him up. His face glowed with sweat and his eyes were closed.
When I'd seen Derek in wolf form, I figured werewolves grew when they shifted, like the ones in movies. They didn't. He was really that big. Even slumped, he was more than a head taller then Chloe. A huge football player of a guy.
Beside me, Daniel whispered, "I was going to tell him off for bullying you. But I'm having second thoughts."
I smiled at him. "I don't blame you."
Despite his size, Derek was obviously no older than us. His cheeks were dotted with mild acne and I could see the ghosts of fading pocks, as if it had been much worse not too long ago. Dark hair tumbled into his eyes as he rested with his head bent forward. — Kelley Armstrong

I looked over at the others. "Anyone have tree-climbing issues?"
Obviously Ash and I didn't. Daniel, Hayley, and Corey said they'd be fine. Chloe hoped she would - she had gymnastics training. Mr. Bae joked that it would be his first time in a couple of decades. Derek said nothing.
"Derek?"
"It looks like I'll be the guy doing the distracting. I'm not trusting a tree branch to hold me."
"You're not playing decoy," Chloe said. She turned to us. "I'm sorry. I know that sounds like a cop-out, but he really can't. The last time we were in a fight against the St. Clouds, the orders were to tranq all of us except Derek. For him, it was shoot to kill. They don't trust werewolves."
"I think they've calmed down," Derek said. "They've been watching us for months and haven't tried to assassinate me yet."
Chloe put her hands on her hips. "And that's your definition of acceptance? Not going out of their way to kill you?" — Kelley Armstrong

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, 'I'd like to write about that.' Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem. — Maya Angelou

His gaze narrowed and she could see his
hands twitching again like he'd love nothing more than to throttle her. She was beginning to think it was an affliction of his. Did he go around wanting to choke the life out of everyone or was she special in that regard?
"I'm afraid 'tis an urge that is entirely original to you," the laird barked.
She clamped her mouth shut and closed
her eyes. Mother Serenity had vowed one day Mairin would regret her propensity to blurt out her least little thought. Today just might be that day. — Maya Banks

And yet she told you the truth," Graeme said softly. "Aye," Teague muttered. "I wouldn't have even blamed her if she'd withheld what she'd seen. I cannot say that I wouldn't have done so if I were in her position."
"She is an amazing lass," Graeme murmured. "Aye, that she is," Bowen agreed. "And she's intensely loyal to you, Graeme. — Maya Banks

What are the two of you whispering about?" Alaric demanded irritably. She glanced over to see the warrior watching her, his eyes narrow with suspicion. "If I wanted you to know, I'd have spoken louder," she said calmly. He turned away muttering what she was sure were more blasphemies about annoying females. "You must make the priest weary with the length of your confessions," she said. He raised one eyebrow. "Who says I confess anything? — Maya Banks

He kissed her temple, nuzzling her skin, and murmured again that she was the most beautiful lass in the world. They weren't just words he offered. Platitudes he didn't mean. He cared not about the scar that marred her face. In his eyes, she was the most beautiful lass he'd ever known and nothing would change that. Not a scar. Not circumstances. She was his, and he didn't give one damn what others thought. — Maya Banks

Trying to drown me woman?
'You can't drown a SEAL,' she said. 'How embarrassing would that be?'
'God yes. Shoot me, hang me, let me die of infection from a hangnail, but don't let me die in the water. They'd send me to hell on principle. — Maya Banks

He shakes his head with a slow smile. You'd better be right. If the phone rings, I'm unpluggining it, I swear to God-"
You'd do that to your five-year-old sister?" I gasp in mock outrage.
For one whole night alone? Jesus, Maya, I'd sell her to the gypsies! — Tabitha Suzuma

Callie was his. He'd made mistakes. Mistakes that had cost them both more than he could ever imagine. But she was his, and he had every intention of reasserting his claim on her. — Maya Banks

The laird wasn't uppermost on her mind
this morning. Sleep was.
Another giggle raced around the room,
and Mairin realized that once again, she'd
given voice to her thoughts. — Maya Banks

Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail.
That's stupid talk Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying ... You fail, you get up and try again. — Maya Angelou

Someone could drag me to hell, and I'd crawl back to you, Maya, for a chance to make right everything that was ever wrong between us. — Meredith Wild

You know what? Fuck you man. Cant believe you'd come in here like this, especially after all we had to say in the office today. — Maya Banks

He wanted to tie her to him in ways she'd never escape. But they'd be the most loving, silken ties in the world. — Maya Banks

He drew away and stared down at her, stroking her cheek. I hope to hell this isn't one of those situations where you go a little crazy because we're in a bad situation and you don't think we're going to get out so you do stuff you'd never dream of otherwise. Because baby, when we get out of here, I'm going to spend two days doing nothing but make love to you. And it won't have a damn thing to do with anything but the fact that I want to be inside of you more than I want to breathe. — Maya Banks

Maya, Indian goddess of illusions. Siren of shipwrecked sailors. If only you lactated Pinot Noir, you'd be perfect. — Rex Pickett

I'd always thought of myself as an open-minded person. I had no patience with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or sexuality. But that's just one kind of open-mindedness. There's another kind, too, the kind that's willing to see people for who they really are and admit when you were wrong about them. That's the part I still need to work on. — Kelley Armstrong

Did you have to try for a while?" He thought it a bold question, coming from a stranger. But he was honest with her, his thoughts still loose from the spiked lemonade. "Would you believe, with Maya it happened the first time," he said. He remembered how proud he'd felt, how powerful. The first time in his life he'd had sex without contraception a life had begun. — Jhumpa Lahiri

I'm a feminist. I've been a female for a long time now. It'd be stupid not to be on my own side. — Maya Angelou

"I'm staying here," I whispered down. "I'll keep an aerial eye out for trouble."
"I'm coming with you," Chloe said.
Derek tried to stop her. She said it made sense for her to be in the trees with me in case of a ground attack, and that convinced him. Not that it mattered, I think - she'd have done what she wanted. She obviously didn't take his crap. Still, it would drive me crazy, constantly needing to remind my boyfriend that I could handle myself just fine. My brother was bad enough. — Kelley Armstrong

If I walked into the kitchen without washing my hands as a kid, I'd hear a loud 'A-hem!' from my mother or grandmother. Now I count on other people to do the same. — Maya Angelou

It hit a raw nerve to think that her relationship, or whatever this was between her and Drake, was following some guideline or schedule he performed by rote, regardless of who his current woman was.
Would any woman do for him? Did Evangeline's face blur among the many who'd come before her? Did she stand out? She supposed she was lucky that he at least remembered her name and hadn't called her by another woman's name. She'd likely stab him with a kitchen knife if that ever happened. — Maya Banks

Fear drove people to do things they'd never imagine themselves capable of just to avoid it. — Maya Rodale

Like I'm beautiful. Like I'm the only woman who's ever affected you this way. Like in a room full of other women, you'd only see me. — Maya Banks

I would say you might encounter many defeats but you must never be defeated, ever. In fact, it might even be necessary to confront defeat. It might be necessary, to get over it, all the way through it, and go on. I would teach her to laugh a lot. Laugh a lot at the - and the silliest things and be very, very serious. I'd teach her to love life, I can bet you that. — Maya Angelou

She'd have to treat the interview more like risotto than instant rice, adding ingredients gradually while stirring gently. — Maya Corrigan

I had to see you this night. One more time before I say my vows tomorrow. Once spoken, I'll never break them. I'd not betray my wife or my clan. — Maya Banks

It was the problem with creating a web of lies and deceit. It spiraled out of control until it took on a life of its own, and she was helpless to correct it. In too deep. She'd been trapped by her own solution. — Maya Banks

Kissing her was something he'd never grow tired of. It was like drinking warm sunshine or licking the sugary sweetness of honey from a spoon.
Smooth, silky-soft, and delicate and ultra feminine. She inspired possessiveness such that he all but screamed that she was his.
And the hell of it was she didn't even know it. — Maya Banks

"Okay, what'd I do?" he asked.
"Nothing. I'm just tired."
"Uh-uh. I suspected I was getting the cold shoulder earlier, but with everything going on, I wasn't sure. Now I'm sure. You're giving me the look."
"What look?"
"The Maya's-pissed-with-Corey look. Fifty percent disappointment, thirty percent disapproval, twenty percent exasperation. I've done something you're not happy about."
I hesitated, then blurted, "Rafe told me what you said about Daniel."
He frowned. "You're going to need to be a little more specific."
"In Salmon Creek, when Rafe and I started getting together. You told him to back off because Daniel ... " I glanced at the open door and lowered my voice. "Because Daniel likes me." — Kelley Armstrong

That spring, Amelia takes Maya to the drugstore and lets her choose any polish color she likes. "How do you pick?" Maya says.
"Sometimes I ask myself how I'm feeling," Amelia says. "Sometimes I ask myself how I'd like to be feeling. — Gabrielle Zevin

She very nearly reached for his hand, but curled her fingers into a fist instead. He wouldn't appreciate her pity, and how did you pity a man who'd survived hell? You didn't pity him. You admired him. — Maya Banks

I never thought I'd get a chance to do what I'm doing. It's such a dream. — Maya Rudolph

He didn't show you affection. He didn't do things for you because he knew you'd love them. And, baby, that's wrong. Your relationship with him was all about him. Not about you. It was about what he could take from you without having to give back. And that's ten sorts of fucked up. It's no way for a man to treat a woman he's supposed to cherish and protect. — Maya Banks

There was nothing more to mine here. Not yet anyway. Maya had to dig more, get more information. She was still missing too many pieces of the puzzle. "I better go." "Maya?" She waited. "Caroline isn't the only one who may need rest. She isn't the only one who wants so badly she may start seeing things that aren't there." Maya nodded. "Subtle, Judith." "I wish you'd let Mary or me help you." "I'm fine." "No, — Harlan Coben

Whoa, wait a minute, Coletrane. Are you proposing to me?"
"Well I would if you'd let me finish," he grumbled. — Maya Banks

By saying it aloud, he thought perhaps it might seem silly to him. That perhaps he'd been swept up in the moment with Genevieve and that maybe he wasn't quite to the point of love yet.
But he was dead wrong. The words felt right on his lips. Saying them aloud only confirmed what his heart already knew. He was well and truly in love with the lass, and there was naught but contentment within him at the whole idea. — Maya Banks

He unraveled at light speed, his release sharp, bewildering and beautiful. His hips were still convulsively moving against her body as he settled down over her, too exhausted and spent to remember his own name. The one he'd demanded she say just moments ago.
He became aware of gentle caresses. Her hands gently stroking over his back. He was probably crushing her but he couldn't bring himself to move. He was inside her. Over her. Completely covering her. She was his. — Maya Banks

Perhaps the greatest Maya mystery of all is the cause of the civilization's abrupt decline. The last dated stela erected at Tikal was put up in A.D. 869; the last anywhere in the Maya world, in 909. — David Roberts

"Get out of here," I said, barely able to open my jaw enough to get the words out.
Rafe looked surprised at first but seeing my face, that melted away and his own face hardened. He turned to Nicole.
"What'd you do?" he said.
"Wh-what did I do?" she squeaked. Her blue eyes rounded and she flinched, like a whipped puppy seeing a raised hand. "I-I don't understand."
"What's going on here?" Hayley said.
"She ... " I clenched my fists tighter and my face started to throb, as if I was about to shift. I took a deep breath and tried to find clam so I could explain.
"I-I don't understand," Nicole said again, tears welling up.
"Oh, stuff the theatrics," Sam said. She turned to the others. "Nicole killed Serena." — Kelley Armstrong

Nikhilananda's birthday. Maybe we'd Morris dance, naked, around the base of an old-growth California redwood, its branches lavishly festooned with the soiled hammocks and poop buckets of crunchy-granola tree sitters mentoring spotted owls in passive-resistance protest techniques. You get the picture. In place of Santa Claus, my mom and dad said Maya Angelou kept tabs on whether little children were naughty or nice. Dr. Angelou, they warned me, did her accounting on a long hemp scroll of names, and if I failed to turn my compost I'd be sent to bed with no algae. Me, I just wanted to know that someone wise and carbon neutral - Dr. Maya or Shirley Chisholm or Sean Penn - was paying attention. But none of that was really Christmas. And none of that Earth First! baloney helps out once you're dead and you discover that the snake-handling, — Chuck Palahniuk

"I ... I still - "
"Can't believe it?" Rafe shrugged. "I'm guessing a regular person wouldn't have survived. But we're part cat so maybe falls aren't so bad. I think I lost one of my nine lives though." He twisted to look at the stab wound. "Maybe two."
I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him, and when I did, I knew he was real - the heat of him, the smell of him, the feel of him, the taste of him so incredibly real that it surpassed anything my memory could conjure up. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me back, and it was like every other amazing kiss he'd given me, multiplied ten-fold. I kissed him until I couldn't breathe, and then I kissed him a little more, until I had to pull back, gasping.
"I have got to die more often," he said. And he grinned, that incredible blaze of a grin that made me kiss him again. — Kelley Armstrong

He kissed her as though he were starved for her. Like he'd been held away from her and had finally broken free. It was the kind of kiss that lived only in her fantasies. No one had ever made her feel so..consumed. — Maya Banks

I'm getting the impression that women, in any form, scare you."
He shrugged. "They're the more violent species. And unpredictable. I'd rather take on a wild boar. You can't shoot women. — Maya Banks

If you think my hard-on has nothing to do with you, then you're deluded." Her mouth gaped open as he pushed past her and stalked from the room. "Ooo-kay," she murmured. Not what she'd expected him to say at all. — Maya Banks