You have promise, Mlle. Dubois, but you must choose between an operatic career and what is usually called "a normal life." Though ...why it is so called is beyond me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[Upon being asked if, in the primitive Hunterdon County, New Jersey, mountain town where she lived, there was "any distinction of ...color" among the residents]: No, not a bit, The niggers and whites all live together. The whites are just as good as the niggers, and both are as bad as the devil can make 'em.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
These doctors, they've got no mercy on you, 'specially if you're black. Ah! I've seen 'em, many a time, but, they never come after... me, I never gave 'em a chance--not the first time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I'd like to live another hundred years yet--and I don't know but I will, too. My teeth are good, and if I can get enough to eat, I... don't know why I should die. There's no use in dying--you ain't good for anything after you are dead.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Them old masters, when they got mad, had no mercy on a nigger--they'd cut a nigger all up in a hurry--cut 'em all up into strings,... just leave the life, that's all. I've seen 'em do it, many a time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »