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

There is a great supply of amateur undertakers in show business.

If whites bored me, it was because they bored themselves. They seemed to get little fun out of life and were desperately lonely.

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

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

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

I could depend a lot on my shaking, though I never shimmied vulgarly and only to express myself.