Lena Horne Quotes

I'm not a career kind of person. When I saw new music, new trends coming in, I didn't see any place for me. And I didn't think about it as a career loss, because I was married - I have a great- grandchild now. The low points were when I lost people that I really cared about.

I really do hate to sing.

Count Basie isn't just a man, or even just a band. He's a way of life.

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.

music became my refuge and then my salvation.

In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.

I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.

I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.

I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.

As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.

Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other.

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.

I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was a great place because it hired us, for one thing, at a time when it was really rough [for Black performers].

The naked female body is treated so weirdly in society. It's like people are constantly begging to see it, but once they do, someone's a hoe.

50 years old is like springtime to me.

After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.

I've seen so much. And I've heard so many great performers. There are performers now that couldn't work back in the days when I came along.

I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.

Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.