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.

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

Whenever I write for hotel reservations, I always enclose a set of rules I have made for the hotels.

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

If I wanted pity, I got it because I'm illegitimate. And when I didn't want it I was mean and nasty.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

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