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.

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

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

I really do hate to sing.

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

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.