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

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

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

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.

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 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].