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

Many people know how to criticize, but few know how to praise.

I wondered what I would do if I didn't have my God to turn to and be able to read the Book He had divinely inspired.

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 never felt I belonged. I was always an outsider.

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.

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