Ethel Waters Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.”

“We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.”

“Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn't live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me.”

“The white audiences thought I was white, my features being what they are, and at every performance I'd have to take off my gloves to prove I was a spade.”

“I had always loved John Ford's pictures. And I came to love him, too, but I was frightened to death working for him. He used the shock treatment while directing me.”

“You are a person of the greatest importance when you are a mother of a family. Just do your job right and your kids will love you.”

“The big compliment came from the beer drinkers who didn't know me. They wouldn't drink or move when I sang. If they had their glasses in mid-air, the glasses wouldn't come down.”

“I never felt I belonged. I was always an outsider.”

“I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.”

“Basically there is no difference between whites and blacks, browns and yellows. I decided to think no more of people as Northerners and Southerners.”