Quotes

The dictionary defines "exotic" as that which is strange and foreign. I am not strange; I like boys. I am not foreign; I was born and raised in Hickory County, Missouri.

I'm not the type to sit on a porch and watch life go by.

I have been successful, and I am grateful for my success. I have had some experiences that I wish I never had had, but that would be true in any business. I cannot say sincerely that I would have chosen just this road to fortune. Perhaps I might have wished for another way. But I took the opportunity that came to me. Certainly I am an opportunist. I admit it.

I haven't been out of work since the day I took my pants off.

[being a nudist] I'm a girl from the Ozarks who likes going barefooted... up to the chin.

[dancing burlesque in her 60s] What in heaven's name is strange about a grandmother dancing nude? I'll bet lots of grandmothers do it.

[burlesque performance critics] Whenever you introduce something new, there are those who try to find a moral reason against it. I proved that my type of dancing was art and that I was artistic.

[her burlesque dances] The fan dance represents a white bird flying in the moonlight. My bubble dance, though, is just an abstract dance. It has no lyric story. I use a balloon 65 inches in diameter, five inches bigger than I am.

[stock market crash of 1929] Friends of mine who had been to Harvard, Yale and Princeton jumped out of windows. With accuracy.

[dancing nude during the Great Depression] I wasn't wearing anything. It was economically sound, because I didn't have any money to buy anything.

[marriage] I do not contemplate ever being. Nature and biology being what it is, marriage wouldn't be very practical in my case.