People in general are used to seeing me as the naughty girl because that's what they've always cast me as.

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.

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

I used to teach dance lessons.

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.

In the '50s, critics used to say I had a 'dangerous' act.