Lena Horne

“I'm not a quitter. I believe in fighting for what is right.”

“It's so nice to be a grand old dame. I'm telling you, I've been through it all.”

“I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept.”

“After I did 'The Wiz,' I felt I had a new lease on my career. I'd thought it was over.”

“My identity is very clear to me now. I am a black woman.”

“Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.”

“I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become.”

“I was always battling... I was never going to be a puppet.”

“You have to be class="highlight">taught to be second class; you're not born that way.”

“Always be smarter than the people who hire you.”

“I am not a hero. I am a woman who has been given a great deal of strength.”

“It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.”