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I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

Lena Horne

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Lena Horne
Age: 92 †
Born: 1917
Born: June 30
Died: 2010
Died: May 9
Actor
Dancer
Film Actor
Jazz Musician
Musician
Pin-Up Girl
Recording Artist
Singer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
New York City
New York
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne
White
Else
Afterlife
Become
Hoped
Like
Imitation
Hollywood
Nobody
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Woman

More quotes by Lena Horne

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You have to be taught to be second class you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.
Lena Horne
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I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
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In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.
Lena Horne
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50 years old is like springtime to me.
Lena Horne
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The naked female body is treated so weirdly in society. It's like people are constantly begging to see it, but once they do, someone's a hoe.
Lena Horne
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I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.
Lena Horne
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Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.
Lena Horne
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Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
Lena Horne
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A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.
Lena Horne
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I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
Lena Horne
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Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.
Lena Horne
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I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.
Lena Horne
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Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.
Lena Horne
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I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.
Lena Horne
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I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
Lena Horne
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My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
Lena Horne
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Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now everybody's got to stand up and be counted.
Lena Horne
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You have to be taught to be second class you're not born that way.
Lena Horne
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It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.
Lena Horne
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I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.
Lena Horne