A black face, run-down shoes and elbow-out make-up give me a place to hide. The real Bert Williams is crouched deep down inside the coon who sings the songs and tells the stories.

I named all my children after flowers. There's Lillie and Rose and my son, Artificial.

I have never been able to discover anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient - in America.

Modeling was so fleeting it doesn't count in my life scheme.

Most people who succeed in life have no clue that what they are trying to achieve is impossible.

True nonviolence is mightier than the mightiest violence.

The main thing we were made for is to work with others.

All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science.

Now I’m the go-to-girl for silent films.

Don't bother about being modern. Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid.

Life is a frail moth flying Caught in the web of the years that pass.

Bella: "Should I be afraid?" Edward: "Terrified."

That heightened dynamic can produce interesting, funny ideas that are phrased in ways that surprise even you, as the performer.