I want affection and tenderness desperately, but there's something in me that prevents me from handing it out.

Elia Kazan understood my problems. He was able to bring out the very best in me. He gave me credit for my intelligence.

After years in white theaters I dreaded working in colored houses. The noise, the stomping, whistling, and cheering that hadn't annoyed me when I was young was now something I dreaded.

I have no acting technique I act instinctively. That's why I can't play any role that isn't based on something in my life.

Nothing can beat the smell of dew and flowers and the odor that comes out of the earth when the sun goes down.

We never had a bathtub. Mom would bathe me in the wooden or tin washtub in the kitchen, or in a big lard can.