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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
Sing
Ability
Wanted
Like
Ella
Fitzgerald
Franklin
Technical

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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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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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Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
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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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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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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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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 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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50 years old is like springtime to me.
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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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You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.
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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 had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.
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My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
Lena Horne
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I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
Lena Horne
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I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
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.
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I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
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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