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

I have no acting technique I act instinctively. That's why I can't play any role that isn't based on something in my life.

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.

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

The greatest acts in colored show business had long made Harlem their home and favorite stamping ground.

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.

What broke Mom's heart was realizing that her children knew nothing and cared nothing about the better side of life.