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

[quoted from Brian Lanker`s book "I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America", New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1986)] My own people didn`t see me as a performer because they were busy trying to make a living and feed themselves. Until I got to café society in the `40s, I didn`t even have a black audience and then it was mixed. I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn`t work for places that kept us out . . . it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world.

I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn`t angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

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.

It`s so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

I`m not alone, I`m free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don`t have to be a symbol to anybody; I don`t have to be a first to anybody.

Young people today would get a great deal of encouragement from knowing how close we could be if we had a man like Dr. King around.

After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn`t a nice time.

I`m still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don`t know.

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.

Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.

I really do hate to sing.

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 made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.

Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.

I told them I belong to the same organizations and clubs Mrs. Roosevelt belongs to, but with a few brave exceptions, I was still unable to do films or television for the next seven years.

It`s not the load that breaks you down, it`s the way you carry it.

Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other.

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.

Don`t be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it`s just death.

As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.

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.

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

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

It`s not the load that breaks you down, it`s the way you carry it.

You have to be taught to be second class; you`re not born that way.

[quoted from Brian Lanker`s book "I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America", New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1986)] My own people didn`t see me as a performer because they were busy trying to make a living and feed themselves. Until I got to café society in the `40s, I didn`t even have a black audience and then it was mixed. I was always battling the system to try to get to be with my people. Finally, I wouldn`t work for places that kept us out . . . it was a damn fight everywhere I was, every place I worked, in New York, in Hollywood, all over the world.

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.