I was learning the importance of names - having them, making them - but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.

I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.

I love performing. I shall perform until the day I die.

...It looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty, the freedom to go where one chose if one was held back by one's color? No, I preferred the Eiffel Tower, which made no promises." ~ Josephine Baker, once she had seen the Eiffel Tower

What am I most ashamed of in my life? Not keeping my promise to my sister and being too scared of America to attend her funeral.

I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on.

I shall dance all my life. . . . I would like to die, breathless, spent, at the end of a dance.