I sustain myself with the love of family. - Maya Angelou

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you."

"What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come."

"If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart."

"If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?"

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."