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There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

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
Outlets
Blues
Singing
Emotional
Always
People
Outlet

More quotes by Ethel Waters

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My whole family could sing. My family harmonized without any instruments to accompany them.
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There had been lots of crises in my life. And there was plenty of spunk and battle cry still left in me.
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If whites bored me, it was because they bored themselves. They seemed to get little fun out of life and were desperately lonely.
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There is a certain type of white Southerner who respects certain Negro individuals.
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My aunts lived on liquor and seldom felt like eating much. I don't know what's wrong about a kid stealing when he's hungry.
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I was born out of wedlock. Nobody brought me up.
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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.
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Mom was the greatest influence of my childhood. She wanted to save me from the vice, lust, and drinking that was all about me.
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I found that a couple of bottles of beer would give me a lift, but the third bottle would sober me up.
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I never posed as a saint. I would have slept with a man for nothing if I liked him well enough.
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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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Somehow, the things my mother wanted to do, the release in evangelism she sought with such frenzy, were transferred to me.
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I have reason to be shy. I've been hurt plenty.
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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 could always open shows, perform through the middle, and close shows.
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Though I was a Catholic, I recognized that Protestant churches had something.
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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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All my life I've been prejudiced against wealthy people.
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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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I dressed plain, but my partners were always spending more money on clothes than I could afford.
Ethel Waters