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

When I act I try to express the suffering or joy I've known during my lifetime.

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.

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 have no acting technique I act instinctively. That's why I can't play any role that isn't based on something in my life.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

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.