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In the '50s, critics used to say I had a 'dangerous' act.
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Innocence is one of the most exciting things in the world.
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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.
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I don't think I ever really got interested in theater.
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I am the last of the Mohicans, the creme de la creme of cabaret.
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A lot can be said with just a look, or the way the body moves. Each song is a different character. So each song takes on a different movement of the body. And the body has to go with the subject and the attitude that you have toward that subject.
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I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut.
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Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.
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I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it's the general public that made me - not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have.
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Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland.
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I think it's fun to look at people with big diamonds. I see them in my audience all the time, with the fur coat, a woman whose hand is always out front, or the two fingers are on the cheek to show her diamond. I don't have anything against that.
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People in general are used to seeing me as the naughty girl because that's what they've always cast me as.
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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.
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I fight for other people better than I fight for myself.
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Let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.
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Having my animals or my children with me exorcises that feeling of not being wanted.
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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.
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The public has become my fairy godmother.
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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.
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I have a great need for affection from an audience. I don't know whether this is because I had such a tough life when I was a child.
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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.
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I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.
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I have to keep testing myself.
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The audience has always been my best director.