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

Though I was a Catholic, I recognized that Protestant churches had something.

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

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.

I never accepted the idea that I was all through. I guess no person who has once been a star can do that, ever.

I could always open shows, perform through the middle, and close shows.

Among Negroes it is a bad omen when someone knocks on the door of a house where a person has died.