Twenty-five years is a long time for a girl to live out of a trunk, and after looking over a few houses, I fell in love with one in Southwest Los Angeles.

We miss a lot in life because we don't know when to quit, what to leave out.

When I act I try to express the suffering or joy I've known during my lifetime.

I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.

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.

I'm not afraid to die. I'm looking forward to it. I know the Lord has His arms wrapped around this big sparrow.

If whites bored me, it was because they bored themselves. They seemed to get little fun out of life and were desperately lonely.