Angelou said this to the literary critic Claudia Tate in an interview published in Black Women Writers at Work (1983), answering a question about her creative range. Quote Investigator ↗ verified the passage against scans of the book — quote page 7 — and logged its reprint in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) at page 152. The famous short form is just the opening of a longer answer, and it stops one sentence before her actual point.
“I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it” Maya Angelou, interview by Claudia Tate, in Black Women Writers at Work, ed. Claudia Tate (Harpenden: Oldcastle Books, 1985; 1983 copyright), 7. First published New York: Continuum, 1983. Reprinted in Conversations with Maya Angelou, ed. Jeffrey M. Elliot (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989), 152. Verbatim: “I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. Electricity makes no judgment. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. Electricity will do all that. It makes no judgment. I think talent is like that. I believe every person is born with talent.”
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In context
Evoking the world of Maya Angelou — American memoirist, poet & civil rights activist. Theme: "I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the line actually comes from
Work
Black Women Writers at Work, ed. Claudia Tate
Form
Interview with Claudia Tate, answering a question about Angelou’s creative range
First published
1983 (Continuum, New York); Quote Investigator verified the line at quote page 7 of the 1985 Oldcastle Books printing, which carries the 1983 copyright
Reprinted
Conversations with Maya Angelou, ed. Jeffrey M. Elliot (University Press of Mississippi, 1989), quote page 152
I believe talent is like electricity. We don’t understand electricity. We use it. Electricity makes no judgment. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. Electricity will do all that. It makes no judgment. I think talent is like that. I believe every person is born with talent.
↑ the version that circulates stops after “We use it.” — the rest is the point
1983 — Claudia Tate publishes Black Women Writers at Work, a collection of interviews with fourteen Black women authors, with Angelou’s the opening chapter. Open Library’s work record ↗ gives 1983 as the first publication year, with Continuum as the original publisher.
1992–1993 — the simile enters the quotation dictionaries, appearing under “Talent” in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992, page 316) and the 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations (1993, page 433), both logged by Quote Investigator ↗ — which is roughly where it starts travelling without its source.
Black Women Writers at Work was first published in 1983, per Open Library’s edition record ↗ — well after the 1931 US public-domain line, so both the interview text and the volume are still in copyright. Angelou’s literary legacy is administered by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC, which holds the copyright notice on her official site ↗, and the book itself is back in print from Haymarket Books ↗. Quote the line briefly with attribution rather than reproducing the full passage.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What goes wrong with this one
The name on this quote is right — it is the wording and the sourcing that go astray. No other author is claimed anywhere in the results checked. What circulates instead is a trimmed Angelou, stripped of the sentence the simile was built to deliver, and passed around with no source attached.
✕
Wording“Talent is like electricity…” — the clipped form trimmed
The short version drops her opening “I believe”, and the long version that aggregators run drops a sentence from the middle. The AZQuotes text ↗ runs straight from “We use it.” to “You can plug into it…”, where Quote Investigator’s transcription from scans ↗ has “Electricity makes no judgment.” sitting between them.
✕
SourcingQuote-aggregator pages unsourced
AZQuotes ↗ carries the whole passage with nothing but her name attached — no book, no interviewer, no year. That is how a perfectly real quotation ends up looking like a fabrication, and it is why a reader had to ask Quote Investigator about it ↗ at all.
✕
Mix-up“Life is like electricity” different line
Angelou applied the same simile to life rather than talent: Wikiquote ↗ carries “Life is like electricity; it’s just there” dated 1974, drawn from Conversations with Maya Angelou. Two genuine Angelou lines, one image, two subjects — worth keeping straight.
✓The line really is hers. Quote Investigator ↗ traced it to Angelou’s interview with Claudia Tate in Black Women Writers at Work, verified it against scans at quote page 7, and found it reprinted in Conversations with Maya Angelou in 1989 at page 152. Quote the passage in full and it says something considerably sharper than the trimmed version does.
Context
Why the trimmed version misses the point
Claudia Tate had asked Angelou about her creative range, and the answer politely declined the compliment. Talent, in her telling, is not a specialism you get assigned — it is a current you happen to be wired for, and current has no opinion about what you build with it.
That last part is the half the internet leaves off. The simile is not saying talent is mysterious and wonderful; it is saying talent is morally neutral — the same wiring lights a cathedral or kills a man — and that everybody comes with some.
It makes no judgment. I think talent is like that.
She used the same wiring twice
Angelou reached for electricity more than once. Wikiquote ↗ carries a separate line under its Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989) heading — “Life is like electricity; it’s just there… you can plug into that electricity and light up a synagogue, or a church, or keep a heart machine going; or you can electrocute a man” — which it dates to 1974. Same image, different subject: there she argues that life makes no value judgments, here that talent doesn’t. Both are genuine; they are simply not the same quotation.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1928–2014 · American memoirist, poet & civil rights activist
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis in 1928 and became, as her biography ↗ puts it, an American memoirist, essayist, poet and civil rights activist. Her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), made her a household name, and she recited a poem at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. She died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 2014.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
How to cite this
Maya Angelou, interview by Claudia Tate, in Black Women Writers at Work, ed. Claudia Tate (Harpenden: Oldcastle Books, 1985; 1983 copyright), 7 — the printing verified against scans by Quote Investigator. First published New York: Continuum, 1983. Reprinted in Conversations with Maya Angelou, ed. Jeffrey M. Elliot (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989), 152.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I believe talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it’?” Last verified 29 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-believe-talent-is-like-electricity-we-dont-understand/