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?

The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.

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

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.

Sex was a pleasurable form of exercise, like dancing.

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

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.