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.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.

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

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

I'm not a career kind of person. When I saw new music, new trends coming in, I didn't see any place for me. And I didn't think about it as a career loss, because I was married - I have a great- grandchild now. The low points were when I lost people that I really cared about.