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

My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.

I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States, because of that terror of discrimination.

I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.

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

Sex was a pleasurable form of exercise, like dancing.