Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this bestselling spiritual classic.

This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to be treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power of spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou’s latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page.

Maya Angelou speaks out . . .

On Faith: “I'm taken aback when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is the question 'Already?' It seems to me a lifelong endeavor to try to live the life of a Christian. It is in the search itself that one finds ecstasy.”

On Racism: “It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color.”

On Taking Time for Ourselves: “Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. A day away acts as a spring tonic. It can dispel rancor, transform indecision, and renew the spirit.”

On Death and Grieving: “When I sense myself filling with rage at the absence of a beloved, I try as soon as possible to remember that my concerns should be focused on what I can learn from my departed love. What legacy was left which can help me in the art of living a good life?”

On Style: “Style is as unique and nontransferable and perfectly personal as a fingerprint. It is wise to take the time to develop one's own way of being, increasing those things one does well and eliminating the elements in one's character which can hinder and diminish the good personality.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307807595

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, memoirist, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world. She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. She died in 2014.

Book preview

In All Ways a Woman

In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady. In fact, there were so few public acknowledgments of the female presence that I felt personally honored whenever nature and large ships were referred to as feminine. But as I matured, I began to resent being considered a sister to a changeling as fickle as luck, as aloof as an ocean, and as frivolous as nature.

The phrase A woman always has the right to change her mind played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an inane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than be like a woman and change my mind.

Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work. Becoming an old female may require only being born with certain genitalia, inheriting long-living genes and the fortune not to be run over by an out-of-control truck, but to become and remain a woman command the existence and employment of genius.

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough. She must have convinced herself, or be in the unending process of convincing herself, that she, her values, and her choices are important. In a time and world where males hold sway and control, the pressure upon women to yield their rights-of-way is tremendous. And it is under those very circumstances that the woman’s toughness must be in evidence.

She must resist considering herself a lesser version of her male counterpart. She is not a sculptress, poetess, authoress, Jewess, Negress, or even (now rare) in university parlance a rectoress. If she is the thing, then for her own sense of self and for the education of the ill-informed she must insist with rectitude in being the thing and in being called the thing.

A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer.

She will need to prize her tenderness and be able to display it at appropriate times in order to prevent toughness from gaining total authority and to avoid becoming a mirror image of those men who value power above life, and control over love.

It is imperative that a woman keep her sense of humor intact and at the ready. She must see, even if only in secret, that she is the funniest, looniest woman in her world, which she should also see as being the most absurd world of all times.

It has been said that laughter is therapeutic and amiability lengthens the life span.

Women should be tough, tender, laugh as much as possible, and live long lives. The struggle for equality continues unabated, and the woman warrior who is armed with wit and courage will be among the first to celebrate victory.

Passports to Understanding

Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true everywhere, yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the sake of education as well as pleasure.

It is necessary, especially for Americans, to see other lands and experience other cultures. The American, living in this vast country and able to traverse three thousand miles east to west using the same language, needs to hear languages as they collide in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

A tourist, browsing in a Paris shop, eating in an Italian ristorante, or idling along a Hong Kong street, will encounter three or four

Reviews for Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

[snash_44 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A series of very short rules to live by. The few that are more observations are enlightening but most are so often routed that they're almost cliches. Doesn't mean they're not true but merely too obvious to be inspiring.

[bcrowl399 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Words to live by so eloquently penned by Maya Angelou. Could anything be better?

[abycats_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Many words of wisdom but far too short a book. Now reading her poetry.

[nataliec7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have to give this little book 5 out of 5. I really enjoyed it and now wish to own a copy of my own. It was quick and easy to read and made me think a lot. I'd struggle to find a favourite part as I enjoyed it all. A must read for me.

[bookwoman247 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book of essays is small, but powerful. Topics range from women to racism, from spirituality to relationships.

I got more out of this little book than I've taken away from many a tome. I know it is cliché to say that Dr. Angelou is wise, but it is true. This book is filled with warmth and wisdom, and there is not a single superfluous word in it.

[bookcrazed_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

More than wit, Angelou writes with warm good humor about events of the years it took her to get where she is. One doesn't have to adopt for oneself all Angelou's life conclusions to appreciate how she came to them. While all human beings are equal, some are more equal than others, as Orwell would say, and Maya Angelou's talent is definitely in the class of more equal. Major complaint: There just wasn't enough of it.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I understand that Maya Angelou is a word smith. I understand that she writes good poetry, witty prose, and insightful observations.

I understand all this. But I don’t like what she produces.

In Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Maya Angelou writes several essays. Some are reflections from her youth, others experiences from recent memory, and others observations of the world as a whole.

While I have absolutely no experience being a single, black mother trying to make ends meet in an era before civil rights were considered rights, and as such, cannot possibly understand the toil and hardship one goes through in that pursuit, I feel that some of the observations she makes are either ill conceived or totally wrong.

In one essay, she wonders why modern comedians resort to “gross” humor, and why television depicts families as dysfunctional in order to get a laugh. While I have no proof that she’s referencing The Simpsons, which features a family as she’s described, I can’t help but note, with a sense of irony in my thoughts, that she herself was a celebrity guest voice on that show. The essay, disregarding what show or shows in particular she meant, seems narrow-minded or just ill conceived. The shows that show us a dysfunctional family are funny because everybody has a dysfunctional family. If we don’t laugh about it, what are we to do?

Another essay that bugged me was one in which she was talking to a well-off white guy who accidentally let slip words indicating that there were black American soldiers, and “our boys”--the white ones. Angelou accused him of subconscious racism, and then wanted to talk about it in a nonthreatening manner. While I agree that people tend to have issues that may seem “racist,” I’m no surprised that her attempts to talk to this man about it were met by embarrassment, shame, and eventually never speaking to her again. If somebody accused me of being racist, or otherwise prejudiced, based on a slip of the tongue, and then wanted to talk about it, I’d feel terrible myself, as I’m not a racist, nor am I prejudiced against anybody for circumstances that are beyond their control, and to call me otherwise would be off putting, and make me feel that future interactions with that person would require me to tread lightly, so as to not have them think I’m racists, etc.

While Angelou has done much more living than I have, in Wouldn’t Take Nothing, she comes off as one of those annoying people who believes that everything they believe is right, and to disagree is to be wrong. This may not be what she actually believes, and it’s beyond my authority to make such a claim. However, this book left a bad feeling in my literary mouth, turning me off of any future sessions with Angelou.

[venqat65 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Many short stories which touch on life. We read this for book club and it was amazing how long we discussed some of these short works. It seemed that everyone had a lot to say about one of the stories or another. Quite thought provoking.

[sisaruus · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Insipid Oprahisms. Angelou had nothing to say but was going to say it anyway.

[jbreedlove_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An inspirational account of the authors life.