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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.