Top 40 Quotes by Ethel Waters

The white audiences thought I was white, my features being what they are, and at every performance I'd have to take off my gloves to prove I was a spade.

I am an isolationist.

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

Somehow, the things my mother wanted to do, the release in evangelism she sought with such frenzy, were transferred to me.

My whole family could sing. My family harmonized without any instruments to accompany them.

I had always loved John Ford's pictures. And I came to love him, too, but I was frightened to death working for him. He used the shock treatment while directing me.

Whenever I played Columbus, Ohio, I dropped in to see my close friend, a medium who had mysterious powers. Her Indian guide was Mohawk.

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

All my life I've been prejudiced against wealthy people.

No one in the world can beat Ella Fitzgerald as a riff singer.