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.

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

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.

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

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

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