Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. . . Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.

As Gillespie states "If 1968 was a year of great pain loss and sadness it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". As of 2008 Maya Angelou owned two homes in Winston-Salem North Carolina and one in Harlem full of her "growing library" of books Maya Angelou has collected throughout her life artwork collected over the span of many decades and well-stocked kitchens. Angelou has one son Guy whose birth was described in her first autobiography one grandson and two young great-grandchildren and according to Gillespie a large group of friends and extended family.

She is respected as a spokesperson of Black people and women and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. : /ˈmaɪ. Maya Angelou (pron.