Lena Horne Quotes

The naked female body is treated so weirdly in society. It's like people are constantly begging to see it, but once they do, someone's a hoe.

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.

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

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.

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.

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.

music became my refuge and then my salvation.

I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.

Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other.

It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was a great place because it hired us, for one thing, at a time when it was really rough [for Black performers].

It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.

I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.

I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.

I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.

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

Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.

50 years old is like springtime to me.

I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.

Count Basie isn't just a man, or even just a band. He's a way of life.

I really do hate to sing.

I'm not a career kind of person. When I saw new music, new trends coming in, I didn't see any place for me. And I didn't think about it as a career loss, because I was married - I have a great- grandchild now. The low points were when I lost people that I really cared about.

I've seen so much. And I've heard so many great performers. There are performers now that couldn't work back in the days when I came along.

After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.