I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.

The white audiences thought I was white, my features being what they are, and at every performance I'd have to take off my gloves to prove I was a spade.

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

There is a certain type of white Southerner who respects certain Negro individuals.

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.

I found that a couple of bottles of beer would give me a lift, but the third bottle would sober me up.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk