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.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

I'm not afraid to die. I'm looking forward to it. I know the Lord has His arms wrapped around this big sparrow.

I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

What impressed me most about New York were its huge apartment houses.