My whole family could sing. My family harmonized without any instruments to accompany them.

There is a great supply of amateur undertakers in show business.

The big compliment came from the beer drinkers who didn't know me. They wouldn't drink or move when I sang. If they had their glasses in mid-air, the glasses wouldn't come down.

If I wanted pity, I got it because I'm illegitimate. And when I didn't want it I was mean and nasty.

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.

I have reason to be shy. I've been hurt plenty.

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