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.

I found that a couple of bottles of beer would give me a lift, but the third bottle would sober me up.

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 had always loved John Ford's pictures. And I came to love him, too, but I was frightened to death working for him. He used the shock treatment while directing me.

Negroes are human beings with exactly the same faults and virtues as members of the other races.

Though I was excited about the Sojourner Truth play, it was not reassuring to think that my entire future might depend on the success of that one show.

New York is only 97 miles from Philadelphia but was the Big Time as no other American city has ever been.