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.

In her whole life Mom never earned more than five or six dollars a week. Being without a husband, it was hard for her to find any place at all for us to live.

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

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.

There is a certain type of white Southerner who respects certain Negro individuals.

Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn't live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me.