I have kept a hotel room in every town I’ve ever lived in. When you are refreshed by the Bible and the sherry, how do you start a day’s work? just as soon as I get in, but usually it’s about eleven o’clock when I’ll have a glass of sherry. It’s a little like reading Gerard Manley Hopkins or Paul Laurence Dunbar or James Weldon Johnson.Īnd is the bottle of sherry for the end of the day or to fuel the imagination? Then, I try to be particular and even original. It is to remind me what a glorious language it is. I want to hear how English sounds how Edna St. I’m trying to be a Christian and the Bible helps me to remind myself what I’m about.ĭo you transfer that melody to your own prose? Do you think your prose has that particular ring that one associates with the King James version? The truth is, all day long you try to do it, try to be it, and then in the evening if you’re honest and have a little courage you look at yourself and say, Hmm. It’s not something where you think, Oh, I’ve got it done. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy-it’s serious business. I’m working at trying to be a Christian and that’s serious business. It will do anything.ĭo you read it to get inspired to pick up your own pen?įor melody. Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beautiful of languages. I read the Bible to myself I’ll take any translation, any edition, and read it aloud, just to hear the language, hear the rhythm, and remind myself how beautiful English is. The language of all the interpretations, the translations, of the Judaic Bible and the Christian Bible, is musical, just wonderful. You once told me that you write lying on a made-up bed with a bottle of sherry, a dictionary, Roget’s Thesaurus, yellow pads, an ashtray, and a Bible. Many of the answers seemed as much directed to the audience as to the interviewer so that when Maya Angelou concluded the evening by reading aloud from her work-again to a rapt audience-it seemed a logical extension of a planned entertainment. Many of her remarks drew fervid applause, especially those which reflected her views on racial problems, the need to persevere, and “courage.” She is an extraordinary performer and has a powerful stage presence. Close to the stage was a small contingent of black women dressed in the white robes of the Black Muslim order. a testament to Maya Angelou’s drawingpower. A large audience, predominantly women, was on hand, filling indeed every seat, with standees in the back. This interview was conducted on the stage of the YMHA on Manhattan’s upper East Side. Interviewed by George Plimpton Issue 116, Fall 1990
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