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.

Asking what I considered an impossible salary when I didn't want to work for someone has boosted my pay again and again.

I learned early in life not to judge others. We outcasts are very happy and content to leave that job to our social superiors.

After years in white theaters I dreaded working in colored houses. The noise, the stomping, whistling, and cheering that hadn't annoyed me when I was young was now something I dreaded.

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.

Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.

Today I blame only certain agents for my long eclipse as a public entertainer.