After years in white theaters I dreaded working in colored houses. The noise, the stomping, whistling, and cheering that hadn't annoyed me when I was young was now something I dreaded.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

I had a probing mind and an elephant memory.

Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn't live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me.

Negroes are human beings with exactly the same faults and virtues as members of the other races.

I learned early in life not to judge others. We outcasts are very happy and content to leave that job to our social superiors.

I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try.