"In reading Maya Angelou, I became more grown-up than the grown-ups."

Roshi Fernandez on Maya Angelou at NPR:

I had entered the second year of the six years when I didn't speak of the-thing-that-happened-to-me-when-I-was-11, and I was looking for explanations of that thing. And I was looking for ways to introduce the subject to my parents, so they would say, "Oooh, I understand," in an unemotional, chatty way, and we could get thatthing out into the open.

In Maya Angelou, I found some answers. Reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explained more to me than the Harold Robbins and Jackie Collins novels that we passed around the classroom ever did. Maya Angelou told me quite clearly — your body is yours.