nypl:

“I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me. So I have a special place for every library, in my heart of hearts.”

— RIP Maya Angelou, a literary legend and longtime supporter of The New York Public Library, which holds her papers at its Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (where she spoke). Angelou also once discussed her love of libraries with us – take a look.