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Learn from a master: In 1995, the late, great Maya Angelou shared these writing tips

For Angelou, the key to her success involved a hotel room, a Bible and a bottle of sherry. Revisit this archive video on what would have been her 89th birthday.

For Angelou, the key to her success involved a hotel room, a Bible and a bottle of sherry

Nayani Thiyagarajah · CBC Arts ·

Learn from a master: In 1995, the late, great Maya Angelou shared these writing tips

8 years ago
Duration 1:21
In this video from the CBC Archives, Angelou notes that the key to her success involved a hotel room, a bible and a bottle of sherry.

In 1995, Maya Angelou told the CBC precisely how she gets her work done.

"I have to pull myself away, suspend all disbelief and belief, in order to write," she explained. "I keep a hotel room in any town in which I live."

Angelou says she would go to the hotel around 5:30 in the morning every weekday, bringing with her a magic quartet: a Roget's thesaurus, a dictionary, a Bible and a bottle of sherry ("for my own salvation," she says).

On what would have been her 89th birthday, today we celebrate the life and legacy of the beloved Angelou, whose wisdom lives on through her words.

For more throwbacks like this one, visit the CBC Digital Archives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nayani Thiyagarajah

Nayani Thiyagarajah is a director, producer, and writer of stories for the screen. As a Libra, she enjoys the balance of both truth-telling and playing make believe for a living. Fun facts: Nayani sometimes cackles and snorts while laughing. She can be found on Twitter and Instagram here: @_9knee. (For anybody wondering, that's how you say her name. nayani = 9'knee)

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