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.

All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

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

Is that what they call a vocation, what you do with joy as if you had fire in your heart, the devil in your body?

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

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