What impressed me most about New York were its huge apartment houses.

What broke Mom's heart was realizing that her children knew nothing and cared nothing about the better side of life.

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 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.

Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.

Among Negroes it is a bad omen when someone knocks on the door of a house where a person has died.