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

Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

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

The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

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

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

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

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

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.

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

Sacred soul has indomitable strength.

It's only a moment if you believe.

What the history of aviation has brought in the 20th century should inspire us to be inventors and explorers ourselves in the new century.

One tell-tale sign of a Wingnut: they always confuse partisanship with patriotism.

I don't like freedom jazz - I think it's void of roots and void of foundation.

Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.

Women hate revolutions and revolutionists. They like men who are docile, and well-regarded at the bank, and never late at meals.

Without new economies, our old economies get our jobs taken from them because everyone else has figured out how to do it.

Do people get moral when they don't get ahead?

I'm so afraid to love you, But more afraid to lose. Clinging to a past that doesn't let me chose.