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

Ethel Waters

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Ethel Waters
Age: 80 †
Born: 1896
Born: October 31
Died: 1977
Died: September 1
Film Actor
Jazz Musician
Singer
Stage Actor
Vocalist
Chester
Pennsylvania
Belonged
Outsider
Outsiders
Felt
Always
Never

More quotes by Ethel Waters

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I wanted to be with the kind of people I'd grown up with, but you can't go back to them and be one of them again, no matter how hard you try.
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Asking what I considered an impossible salary when I didn't want to work for someone has boosted my pay again and again.
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I was born out of wedlock. Nobody brought me up.
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I had a probing mind and an elephant memory.
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I'm not afraid to die. I'm looking forward to it. I know the Lord has His arms wrapped around this big sparrow.
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The greatest acts in colored show business had long made Harlem their home and favorite stamping ground.
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Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.
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There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.
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You are a person of the greatest importance when you are a mother of the family.
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We miss a lot in life because we don't know when to quit, what to leave out.
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I could always open shows, perform through the middle, and close shows.
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We show girls were forced to live in whorehouses in each town, no other accommodations being available.
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In her whole life Mom never earned more than five or six dollars a week. Being without a husband, it was hard for her to find any place at all for us to live.
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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.
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I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.
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My father came back one day and forced my mother to submit to him. He raped her, holding a knife.
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I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.
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Only those who are being burned know what fire is like.
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What broke Mom's heart was realizing that her children knew nothing and cared nothing about the better side of life.
Ethel Waters
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Today I blame only certain agents for my long eclipse as a public entertainer.
Ethel Waters