If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?
Maya AngelouRead
It's still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the emotional struggle of confronting past memories and the cathartic release that writing can provide.
Maya Angelou expresses the complexities of revisiting painful memories from her past. She acknowledges the fear and emotional weight that comes with these recollections, yet also highlights the solace found in writing as a means to process and release those feelings, allowing for healing through reflection.
Themes
MemoryWritingHealingPastEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a literary workshop to discuss the therapeutic role of writing.
More from Maya Angelou
All quotes βI find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed.
Maya AngelouRead
The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn't need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder-in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.
Maya AngelouRead
I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?
Maya AngelouRead
I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.
Maya AngelouRead
I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people - one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion's den. You can't just play around with all those big cats - you've got to take somebody on.
Maya AngelouRead
Similar quotes
You must pay the penalty of growing-up, Paul. You must leave fairyland behind you.
Lucy Maud MontgomeryRead
So here's to the girls on the go_x000D_ Everybody tries._x000D_ Look into their eyes,_x000D_ And you'll see what they know:_x000D_ Everybody dies._x000D_ A toast to that invincible bunch,_x000D_ The dinosaurs surviving the crunch._x000D_ Let's hear it for the ladies who lunch_x000D_ Everybody rise!
Stephen SondheimRead
At some point in life, the world's beauty becomes enough.
Toni MorrisonRead
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack LondonRead
Life is a mirror: if you frown at it, it frowns back; if you smile, it returns the greeting.
William Makepeace ThackerayRead
I was a quicksilver girl who saw every leaf on every tree. For me, there was no middle ground between sinking and flying, and once I was into my early adult years, my roller coaster got wilder and faster: I seemed to rise and fall with the same reckless velocity.
Margaret TrudeauRead