Top 40 Quotes by Ethel Waters

I have reason to be shy. I've been hurt plenty.

Mom never quit on me. My only regret is that she didn't live long enough to share some of the money and comforts my work in show business has brought me.

I've never been able to feel that there is anything undignified about making your living by the sweat of your brow.

Though I was excited about the Sojourner Truth play, it was not reassuring to think that my entire future might depend on the success of that one show.

I cannot help feeling I would have been happier with a husband and chidren of my own.

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.

The big compliment came from the beer drinkers who didn't know me. They wouldn't drink or move when I sang. If they had their glasses in mid-air, the glasses wouldn't come 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.

There was one emotional outlet my people always had when they had the blues. That was singing.

When you dominate other people's emotions, the time has to come when you will have to pay, and heavily, for that privilege.