SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

MAYA ANGELOU - QUOTES from ICONOCLAST

thank you comcast dvr! thank you sundance channel! couldn't do this without you. what a remarkable, wonderful, fascinating communication between two icons. i didn't write down any of dave's words, but i love him. and his communication with james lipton on inside the actors studio/on my top ten list.

but how could i not watch, rewatch with pen and paper to capture these very important, life affirming words from my hero, Dr. Maya Angelou

in regards to dave's comments about malcolm x and martin luther king jr. she says,

"...that's the wonderful thing about the icon. you continue to grow. and you develop COURAGE. the most important of all the virtues. because without COURAGE you can't practice any other virtue consistently. if you've seen and know the truth and have enough COURAGE to change your way of thinking -to say, 'hey everybody, you know what i said last week; i don't believe that anymore, a little child just straightened me out.' this was the mark of martin and malcolm."

AND THEN... in response to dave's comments about the racist times in which she lived, the 6 assassinations, he said, "how can you not be angry?" (or something close to that) and she said,
(and god i love this!...

"if you are not angry you're either a stone or too sick to be angry.

you should be angry. (dave says, but, what do you do...)

now mind you. there's a difference.

you must not be bit-ter.

let me show you why:

bitterness is like cancer;
it eats upon the host. it doesn't do anything to the object of it's displeasure.

so use that anger, yes!

you write it

you paint it

you dance it

you march it

you vote it

you do everything about it. you talk it. never stop talking it."


AND when dave asked her what she attributed her success to - when she was born in a place and time when success for someone like her was so out of the realm of possibility; even her travels, global, in a pre-globalized world... she said this:

i attribute my success to .."love.

love.

love is a condition so powerful it may be that which holds the stars in the firmament.

it may be that which pulses and urges the blood in the veins

- COURAGE -

you have to have courage to love somebody.

because you risk everything. every. thing."


and about words, she said:

"i believe a word is a thing. it is nonvisible, audible for only the time it hangs in the air

but it goes into the upholstery, the rug, my hair, and finally into my body.

i believe words are things.

i live them."

posted by SHE @ 7:40 PM