'I write because I can'

 

“Wewrite for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans– because we can.   We have some impulsewithin us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings.  That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare tolove someone, that’s why we write – because we have the impulse to explain whowe are.” – Maya Angelou
 Angelou was an author, poet, dancer, actress, andsinger.  Born in St. Louis on this date in 1928, she authored 7 autobiographies, 3 books of essays, and many books of poetry.  She also wrote a long list of plays,movies, and television shows, received dozens ofawards and was presented with 50 honorary degrees.   It was her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, written in 1968 at the urging of fellow writerJames Baldwin and cartoonist Jules Feiffer that brought her worldwide attention and started her on the pathway tosuccess.
Angelou  "performed" many of her poems and essays at public readings and talks.  I had thegood fortune to hear her at one on the campus of AugsburgCollege and also be part of a small group gathering before the event.  I asked her if she wrote first for herself and then to share,or the other way around.
“I would be a liar, a hypocrite, ora fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader,”she said.  “I do.  But I write for the reader who hears, whoreally will work at it, going behind what I seem to say.  So I write for myself and that reader whowill pay his or her dues.”