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

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

I never accepted the idea that I was all through. I guess no person who has once been a star can do that, ever.

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

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.

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

In her whole life Mom never earned more than five or six dollars a week. Being without a husband, it was hard for her to find any place at all for us to live.