In the beginning, I didn't realize that I was so open with my feelings, and I had to stop and think to myself, I couldn't possibly be the only one in the world going through this. Perhaps this will help other people when I face my fears and allow people to come into my space. These are the things that I worked through, and in a sense, it's great that I was able to share that, although I was terrified after I realized that I was sharing it with the world.

There's a lesson to be learned out of everything we go through in life. I recall when I left [Jack Gordon], and my mother was so upset. "How could you allow him to beat you? You should really be upset with him." And I said, "Mother, I can't be." She goes, "Why?" I said, "Because I can't harbor hatred in my heart." I was extremely religious and extremely naïve. God took me through that for a reason, for me to learn the outcome.

It's good to do things that are out of the norm.

It was so strange. I knew that Josephine Baker had performed on the same stage but that night I felt it. Many of the same people who worked with Josephine Baker are still here. They know what they're doing. And that was a very comfortable feeling.

That's one of the things that I say to myself as far as a ritual that I have every day: "What can I do today to make it better than it was yesterday?"

Growth is what we all need and what we all strive for because we want to get better and better and better each day.

I married him because he told me it was the only way he could protect me. If we were just manager and client, my family could do whatever they wanted to get me back, but if I was his wife, they couldn't.