A biography for Ruby Deehasn’t been written yet.
“OK, boss, I don't mind shuffling, but I won't scratch my head.”
“Oh, I'm impressed with Lorraine Hansberry. She was a genius at whose feet I could sit.”
“I never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement.'”
“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.”
“The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity.”
“I didn't have the kind of talent or personality that kept me dreaming about Hollywood. They don't hire little colored girls to do this or that. After I got that in my head, I took another direction.”
“I think I have something unique that I'd like to share.”
“My experience for myself as a performer is not one of high expectations.”
“We women have a great function to perform. The world needs us.”
“I shined shoes; I did windows.”
“Black women have to know the historical and everyday struggles of black men, and our men have to know the struggles of black women in America.”
“I remember street corners and pickets and parades. That's what I got teethed on.”
“A nation's youths shouldn't be sent off to die.”
“I think the poets and musicians, they belong to everybody.”
“Marriage is really an exciting adventure.”
“Well, I didn't grow up with that word 'retirement' as part of my consciousness. I didn't grow up with professionals that retired. I thought retiring was when you are tired and go to bed.”
“I'm an actor who appreciates direction.”
“You can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are better than others, and you can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are less than others, either.”
“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.”
“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.”