Quotes

On receiving her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, she said: Here with stars in my eyes - something that I dreamed about when I was 9 years old. There are others that deserve it, but let everybody get their own.

If there's anything in life you consider worthwhile achieving -- go for it. I was told many times to forget show business, I had nothing going for me. But I pursued it, anyway. Voila!

In 1996, she said: I watched the first episode of that, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the background. I didn't like the way they dressed. I didn't like the way Archie Bunker talked about black people. But I decided to watch the next episode anyway to see if I could determine why they would allow this trash to be on the air, and I found myself falling down laughing.

I was very comfortable having a steady job on a hit show, and who knew in The Jeffersons (1975) would catch on?

Who never wanted any credit or any publicity for her philanthropy and regularly turned down invitations to be publicly recognized for her support, she said: Use the money to do the research, to do the work, to help people, I don't give to be thanked. I give because I want to help.

On the only child who was born on August 29, after Josephine's other children had passed away, she said: I was the only child born to Josephine Perry that survived. Mama had six other children before me and all had passed very quickly and very young, all succumbing to a combination of illness and disease and the lack of strength to fight off both. As for me, I was both strong and healthy, and, if you believed the rumors, I wasn't too bright.

I wasn't young, I wasn't pretty and I was a black woman looking for success in a business where those attributes were certainly not in demand in the 1960s.