I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.

There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!

Unforgettable in every way, and forever more, that's how you'll stay.

The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.