I don't care to dress up except when it is necessary or good for my business.

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

My whole family could sing. My family harmonized without any instruments to accompany them.

I know the most terrible thing that can happen to a woman. That is the gang-up. Men put you to sleep with their drops and one man after another goes in and takes you.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

The greatest acts in colored show business had long made Harlem their home and favorite stamping ground.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk