{"id":71901,"date":"2014-05-28T15:08:39","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T19:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=71901"},"modified":"2014-05-28T18:36:53","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T22:36:53","slug":"maya-angelou-1928-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/28\/maya-angelou-1928-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Angelou, 1928–2014"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maya<\/a>

Angelou in 2013. Photo: York College of Pennsylvania<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

There is, I hope, a thesis in my work: we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody-two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less than that it\u2019s just plain dirt. In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats\u2014maybe it\u2019s imperative that we encounter the defeats\u2014but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike. There\u2019s no real mystique. Every human being, every Jew, Christian, backslider, Muslim, Shintoist, Zen Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, every human being wants a nice place to live, a good place for the children to go to school, healthy children, somebody to love, the courage, the unmitigated gall to accept love in return, someplace to party on Saturday or Sunday night, and someplace to perpetuate that God. There\u2019s no mystique. None. And if I\u2019m right in my work, that\u2019s what my work says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Maya Angelou, the Art of Fiction No. 119<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is, I hope, a thesis in my work: we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. That sounds goody-two-shoes, I know, but I believe that a diamond is the result of extreme pressure and time. Less time is crystal. Less than that is coal. Less than that is fossilized leaves. Less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14,1132,10893,14082,7782],"class_list":["post-71901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-george-plimpton","tag-interviews","tag-maya-angelou","tag-memorials","tag-the-art-of-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaya Angelou, 1928–2014 by Dan Piepenbring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 28, 2014 \u2013 There is, I hope, a thesis in my work: we may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. 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