My house was bugged. They couldn’t find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don’t like some of the things the government is doing.

You don’t move just because you want to go from this point to that point – the body has to be using the words as well as you vocally use the words.

When we want to have our own style of living, it is nobody’s business but ours. What we do in private is our private business.

I was given away. If your mother gives you away, you think everybody who comes into your life is going to give you away.

When the people who are responsible for our country ask you a direct question, I expect them to accept a direct answer, not to be blackballed because you are telling the truth.

We’re not thought of in terms of color because we are entertainers. We are there to entertain you not because we are black, white, pink, or green or gay or straight or because we are Catholic or Protestant.

My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.

Having my animals or my children with me exorcises that feeling of not being wanted.

Don’t depend on other people to be responsible for you. Don’t make yourself stressed out over nonsensical things like material things.

I’ve always said to my men friends, If you really care for me, darling, you will give me territory. Give me land, give me land.

I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer.

Orson Welles was one of these people who was defying everything the doctors told him he wasn’t supposed to be doing. He was really enjoying himself when he was eating what he wanted to eat.

I used to teach dance lessons.

The public has become my fairy godmother.

This is where you see the truth of entertainment, because it is not edited. You see it on stage as it is happening. Even if we fall down or forget our words, it’s a part of live entertainment.

The river is constantly turning and bending and you never know where it’s going to go and where you’ll wind up. Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don’t let anyone deter you from that.

Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.

I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.

Jewelry, to me, is a pain in the derriere, because you have to be watching it all the time.

Let’s take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.

Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.

Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected.

My house was bugged. They couldn’t find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don’t like some of the things the government is doing.