I was born out of wedlock. Nobody brought me up.

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

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

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

I am somebody cause God don't make no junk

My father came back one day and forced my mother to submit to him. He raped her, holding a knife.

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