--- title: Maya Angelou Inspirational Quotes Best Advice from Commencement Speech description: The influential writer has died at age 86 canonical: https://time.com/123168/maya-angelou-inspirational-quotes-advice/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-28T14:56:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:17.361Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Maya Angelou Inspirational Quotes Best Advice from Commencement Speech og:description: The influential writer has died at age 86 og:url: https://time.com/123168/maya-angelou-inspirational-quotes-advice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c0bd17e2b21078d/69869106adae4484c954346b/angelou.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: Maya Angelou og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Maya Angelou Inspirational Quotes Best Advice from Commencement Speech twitter:description: The influential writer has died at age 86 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c0bd17e2b21078d/69869106adae4484c954346b/angelou.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Advice From Maya Angelou: "Don't Trust People Who Don't Laugh" > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: 10 Questions for Maya Angelou [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions for Maya Angelou](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xsNVvD3D.m3u8) (6:00)  _Published 2013-03-27. Writer, educator and activist Maya Angelou talks to TIME about her unusual relationship with her mother, why she likes guns, and why she has written seven autobiographies._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 28, 2014 2:56 PM UTC  Maya Angelou attends the Norman Mailer Center's fifth annual benefit gala at the New York Public Library on Oct. 17, 2013, in New York City. Maya Angelou attends the Norman Mailer Center's fifth annual benefit gala at the New York Public Library on Oct. 17, 2013, in New York City. Michael Loccisano—Getty Images for The Norman Mailer Center  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 28, 2014 2:56 PM UTC Not every moment in the life of Maya Angelou, the prolific writer who died today at 86, was something to laugh at: as TIME’s Lev Grossman [recounts in his remembrance](http://time.com/123036/maya-angelou-a-hymn-to-human-endurance/), her youth was a period marred by abuse and suffering. Still, Angelou repeatedly took the chance to remind others about the importance of laughter. It was a piece of advice she dispensed frequently often over the years, particularly when speaking to young people. A 1998 [report](http://www.buffalo.edu/ubreporter/archive/vol29/vol29n30/n3.html) of her visit to the University of Buffalo included that idea: “Don’t trust people who don’t laugh,” she told the audience, after speaking about a painful time in her own life. “I don’t.” As recently as last year, she expanded on that wisdom again, when [speaking to Anderson Cooper on CNN](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1308/28/acd.02.html): --- > “” --- In the poem “[Old Folks Laugh](http://allpoetry.com/poem/8511435-Old-Folks-Laugh-by-Maya-Angelou),” included in her 1997 collection of poetry, _I Shall Not Be Moved_, she made clear that her advice about laughter wasn’t just about not taking yourself too seriously. The poem’s conclusion states that laughter is still the best medicine: “When old folks laugh, they consider the promise / of dear painless death, and generously / forgive life for happening / to them.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Hi. I'm Belinda Luscombe. I'm an editor at large at Time. Maya Angelou is a poet, a dancer, a Grammy winner, a teacher, I think a legitimate icon. But she's probably best known, however, for her memoirs. And she has a new one, Mom and Me and Mom. And I am thrilled to say we are here in her beautiful Harlem home talking with her today, Dr. Angelou, thanks for having us. Thank you very much for being here. I'm a fan of yours as well. [ LAUGH ] So. So am I right in saying that mom and me and mom is your seventh memoir? Yes, yes, seventh autobiography. Autobiography. And whey how many more do you think you have? I don't know. In two weeks I'll be celebrating my 85th birthday. Congratulations. Yes, I'm grateful for that. I don't know how much longer I'll be around or how much longer I want to write about. People I've known, and times I've lived, and things I've done. But if there is time, I'll probably be writing when the Lord says Maya, Maya it's time. [ LAUGH ] I'll probably be writing a poem, or trying to write some music, or an autobiography. Why did it take you, this one is about you and your mom, mom and me. And then sort of her looking after you, and then you looking after her, in a way. Why did it take seven books to get to Vivian Baxter? Well, I wrote about her in all the books, but sketchily, scantily. I had to come to a place where I could see her fully. So your mother sent you away when you were three. And then you had a brief period with her when you were seven. And her boyfriend raped you. And then you didn't really see her again until you were 13. That's right. And yet this book is. It just full of admiration and love for her and how did that happen? Well I didn't know her and I didn't trust her and I didn't want to call her mother. All the mothers I had seen were in [ UNKNOWN ] and they were just young versions of my grandmother. And she had record players and she danced in the, in the in the house. And she shook all the time. I asked why do you do that, and snap your fingers. She said I'm keeping my motor running. [ LAUGH ] She was just amazing. But I began to like her because she was kind. She asked what should would I like to call you? I said I'd like to call you lady. She said alright. I love that line about keeping my modem running and the other thing that your mother says in the book that's very funny when you say well you don't have to do this she goes I know all I have to do is stay black and die. That's right. Do you think do you think you sort of got your gift of language from her? Oh yeah. Some of it. Some of it from the bible. Some of it from the preachers, and from the gospel songs. And from poetry. Your mother, she was your protector. She often carried a gun. She seemed to be very fond of guns. She was. She had guns all the time. Did you inherit that fondness? Well, I do like like to have guns around. I don't like to carry them. I like if somebodies going to come into my house and I am not put out to welcome that I want to stop them. Would you actually, have you ever fired your weapon? What? Have you ever fired your weapon? Of course. At a person? I fired it. Period. Not at a person, I hope But I was in my house, which is now my office building, in North Carolina, and it was fall, and I heard somebody, the rhythm of someone walking on the leaves. And they came to my door, and somebody actually turned, turned the knob. So I said, stand back. Stand four feet back, because I'm going to shoot now. Boom. Boom. And then you heard, [ SOUND ] [ LAUGH ] That's exactly what I heard. Are you optimistic about, the future of poetry in America? Oh yes. You are? Yes. I mean, all I have to do is listen to hip hop. I listen to some of thee rappers. I listen to western country music. I write some country music. I listen to the lyric, and if the lyric and the. And the melody. Like each other, and are weird. Then its irresistible, then there is poetry. There's a song called, um... I hope you dance. Mmhmm. Inredicble. I was going to write that poem this summer. [ LAUGH ] hahaha Somebody beat me to it. Do you have any, as you say, you know, coming up to a big birthday. Do you have any unfinished business? I have to get this done. Yes, I still have not written as well as I want to. I write, I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Callon, China, in Cape Town, Cotuya South Africa, and Harlem in Boston. I wrote it right so that reader can say, you know, that's the truth, that's the truth, yeah. I wasn't there and I wasn't a six foot tall black girl but that's the truth, that's human. Dr. Angelou it's been a great pleasure. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. 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