Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Before I latched onto the concept of stereotypes, not once did I reckon with the fact that I would never be a 'Hollywood starlet.' "

Related Quotes:

" I don't know who I would be if I weren't this child from Harlem, this woman from Harlem. It's in me so deep. "

" I think you mustn't tell your body, you mustn't tell your soul, 'I'm going to retire.' You may be changing your life emphasis, but there's still things that you have in mind to do that now seems the right time to do. "

" OK, boss, I don't mind shuffling, but I won't scratch my head. "

" I don't think the arts would have been as meaningful to me if I hadn't grown up in Harlem. "

" My constant battle is putting aside time wasters, and I have to watch out for procrastination. Staying on the path of something you're trying to create has much to do with having confidence in yourself and in your capacity to realize the things you want out of life. "

" When I was young, I dreamt of being a starlet in Hollywood. But there comes a point in every African American's life when you realize the limitations, that you could only play maids or some little supporting role. Even Lena Horne couldn't get good parts. "

" I didn't realize it until I was grown how necessary it is for good people to be tough. "

" One reason I didn't trust my writing for so long was that I always considered myself a serious dramatic actor. But people would always laugh when I shared my writing with them. It took my husband to help me see that I really am part humorist. "

" I think all human beings have a godlike, divine power, only most of us don't tap into it. "

" The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity. "

" Is it safe and sane to only have one political and economic system by which everyone in the world can live? Or can we explore and share? God never made one of anything. "

" You can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are better than others, and you can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are less than others, either. "

" It is so calming, marriage. "

" You should always be prepared to win. But as much as I tell myself that, I've accepted another kind of role. Racism undercuts expectation, something like that. I'm not saying that to excuse myself from anything, but I've lived all this time, and things don't happen. "

" God has use for all the old people. "

" I'd come from a background in New York of picketing and protesting. "

" An Oscar nomination? That would be a very satisfying thing, I'm sure. I would appreciate the thought. It would be like taking your hat off as an actor to all the people who walk through you. "

" It's getting increasingly difficult to be a dreamer under any circumstances. "

" I learned that having great sensitivity is important. But being strong is just as important. "

" I shined shoes; I did windows. "

" Racism is a very insidious thing. It's dangerous to the psyche, to mind and body. It erodes the self-confidence. And I don't know how we get through it. "

" I have always been against the gangster as hero. "

" Marriage is more complex than we think. "

" My experience for myself as a performer is not one of high expectations. "

" There is a place for people 65 and older that no other age group can fit. We have nothing to lose. Some of us have a couple pennies. We can go out now and really be revolutionaries. "

" I don't remember, as a child, feeling a lack of anything. "

" Marriage is really an exciting adventure. "

" I never thought about myself as an activist when we were coming along. I love the people I love. I didn't care whether they could be a Democrat, Republican, communist... anything but a racist. "

" The nature of racism is that it grinds down the soul of the man more finely than it does the soul of the woman. When you want to conquer a people or subject it, you destroy the male component. "

" Black filmmakers - I'm grateful for them. "