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I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

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
Franklin
Technical
Sing
Ability
Wanted
Like
Ella
Fitzgerald

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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.
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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.
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I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
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It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.
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I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
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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.
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You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.
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music became my refuge and then my salvation.
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After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
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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.
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I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.
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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