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

Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.

I spent 30 minutes each morning rubbing my body with half a lemon to lighten my skin.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

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.

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

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