Eartha Kitt

“Let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.”

“I used to teach dance lessons.”

“Having my animals or my children with me exorcises that feeling of not being wanted.”

“I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.”

“I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut.”

“My house was bugged. They couldn't find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don't like some of the things the government is doing.”

“I have to keep testing myself.”

“I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer.”

“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.”

“I never identified with anybody. I have always been very sensitive about my color, because everybody called me 'yellow gal.' I was caught in between both sides - nobody wanted me. I love that my audience is there, but I always feel as though I have to fend for myself.”

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

“My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.”

“I'm a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don't trust diamonds and gold.”

“It’s all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.”

“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.”

“I don't think I ever really got interested in theater.”

“I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me, and that has been my only family. The biggest family in the world is my fans.”

“I love men and I like to get their attention.”

“The audience has always been my best director.”

“Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.”