Nothing can beat the smell of dew and flowers and the odor that comes out of the earth when the sun goes down.

My aunts lived on liquor and seldom felt like eating much. I don't know what's wrong about a kid stealing when he's hungry.

All the men in my life have been two things: an epic and an epidemic.

Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.

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 had always loved John Ford's pictures. And I came to love him, too, but I was frightened to death working for him. He used the shock treatment while directing me.

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