The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library (Hardcover))

by Maya Angelou

We are all so cruelly and comprehensively educated by our tribal myths that it did not occur to me to question what it was

You may not always get what you pay for, but you will definitely pay for what you get.”

“We put surviving into our poems and into our songs. We put it into our folk tales.

We danced surviving in Congo Square in New Orleans and put it in our pots when we cooked pinto beans. We wore surviving on our backs when we clothed ourselves in the colors of the rainbow. We were pulled down so low we could hardly lift our eyes, so we knew, if we wanted to survive, we had better lift our own spirits. So we laughed whenever we got the chance.