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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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music became my refuge and then my salvation.
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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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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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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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Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
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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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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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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.
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I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.
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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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I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
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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.
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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'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
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You have to be taught to be second class you're not born that way.
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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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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'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
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My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
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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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