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

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

I have always been psychic. The walls of any room I walk into talk to me.

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.

When I first went on the stage I was 17 and under the legal age for performers.

Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.

We show girls were forced to live in whorehouses in each town, no other accommodations being available.