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" 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. "

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" Gangsters lived in the neighborhood. They weren't apart from it. Their relationships with people were both benevolent and scary. "

Ruby Dee

Relationships

People

Lived

" I'm very much interested in getting prisons off the stock market. I'm very much interested in upgrading the public school system... and taking a second look at capital punishment. "

" Oh, I'm impressed with Lorraine Hansberry. She was a genius at whose feet I could sit. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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 never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement.' "

Ruby Dee

Remember

Rights

" 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. "

" God, make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear. "

" I'm an actor who appreciates direction. "

" 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. "

Ruby Dee

Know

Woman

" It is so calming, marriage. "

Ruby Dee

Marriage

Calming

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

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

" We are all a tiger with feelings. An elephant who never forgets. We are tiger, panther, monkey - we are all of these things, all of the life rhythms. "

" I have this deep love for authors. I think that we don't do enough to encourage love of words and love of books. "

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

" The economics of life is against the family. "

" The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do. "

Ruby Dee

Been

Ever

" You're not supposed to go into business with the sole purpose of putting your neighbor out of business. This is not the United States of Corporate America. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" My stepmother wanted to be an actress. "

" 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. "

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

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

" 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. "

" I respect the fact that a director has studied the text and the road map of work before us, the subtleties, interconnections, underpinnings... His job is to paint the entire picture and knows all the colors that have to be in it. "

" I do remember the numbers runners, I do remember the poverty and bread lines. Harlem stays with you forever. "