Best 31 quotes of Lena Horne on MyQuotes

Lena Horne

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Count Basie isn't just a man, or even just a band. He's a way of life.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was a great place because it hired us, for one thing, at a time when it was really rough [for Black performers].

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I'm not a career kind of person. When I saw new music, new trends coming in, I didn't see any place for me. And I didn't think about it as a career loss, because I was married - I have a great- grandchild now. The low points were when I lost people that I really cared about.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I thought of singing and acting as a living-making. I was able to take care of myself and a few of my friends.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

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

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    music became my refuge and then my salvation.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    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.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

  • By Anonym
    Lena Horne

    Always be smarter than those who hire you