Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to go and get insulted.

I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.

Happy is the man who hath never known what it is to taste of fame—to have it is a purgatory, to want it is a hell!

Now there is fame! Of all—hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public—fame is by far the worst. It is the castigation by God of the artist. It is sad. It is true.

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

We all have a contract with the public—in us they see themselves, or what they would like to be.