I did take the blows [of life], but I took them with my chin up, in dignity, because I so profoundly love and respect humanity.

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

One dance had made me the most famous colored woman in the world.

The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.

The old Catholic parties hounded me with a Christian hatred from station to station, city to city, one stage to another.

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.

To realise our dreams we must decide to wake up.