I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.
I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
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.
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.