I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer.

My house was bugged. They couldn't find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don't like some of the things the government is doing.

When we want to have our own style of living, it is nobody's business but ours. What we do in private is our private business.

Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.

Orson Welles was one of these people who was defying everything the doctors told him he wasn't supposed to be doing. He was really enjoying himself when he was eating what he wanted to eat.

The river is constantly turning and bending and you never know where it's going to go and where you'll wind up. Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don't let anyone deter you from that.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.

Don't depend on other people to be responsible for you. Don't make yourself stressed out over nonsensical things like material things.

I used to teach dance lessons.

I've always said to my men friends, If you really care for me, darling, you will give me territory. Give me land, give me land.

This is where you see the truth of entertainment, because it is not edited. You see it on stage as it is happening. Even if we fall down or forget our words, it's a part of live entertainment.

Let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.

My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.

Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.

Having my animals or my children with me exorcises that feeling of not being wanted.

I was given away. If your mother gives you away, you think everybody who comes into your life is going to give you away.

When the people who are responsible for our country ask you a direct question, I expect them to accept a direct answer, not to be blackballed because you are telling the truth.

Jewelry, to me, is a pain in the derriere, because you have to be watching it all the time.

The public has become my fairy godmother.

I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.

Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected.

We're not thought of in terms of color because we are entertainers. We are there to entertain you not because we are black, white, pink, or green or gay or straight or because we are Catholic or Protestant.

You don't move just because you want to go from this point to that point - the body has to be using the words as well as you vocally use the words.

I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer.

A lot can be said with just a look, or the way the body moves. Each song is a different character. So each song takes on a different movement of the body. And the body has to go with the subject and the attitude that you have toward that subject.

Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.

Eartha Mae is very shy. She's scared to be seen, scared of rejection and even afraid of affection. Relationships can be rather uncomfortable for her. But, as Eartha Kitt, it's fine. I can accept and reject any time I want to. Do I ever reject? Not really. Although people think I do!

Even as a child, I found a way to survive.

Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland.

Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.

I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut.

I am the last of the Mohicans, the creme de la creme of cabaret.

I am the original 'Material Girl.'

I do think that same gender partners should be able to be married. Why not? If you share a life together than who in the world should have anything to say about it?

I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it's the general public that made me - not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have.

I don't wear my political feelings on my sleeve. However, if I'm asked, I will answer honestly.

I fight for other people better than I fight for myself.

I have a great need for affection from an audience. I don't know whether this is because I had such a tough life when I was a child.

I have to keep testing myself.

I love to tease men with my legs.

I never identified with anybody. I have always been very sensitive about my color, because everybody called me 'yellow gal.' I was caught in between both sides - nobody wanted me. I love that my audience is there, but I always feel as though I have to fend for myself.

I stayed on my own path and did not follow the herd. I made a way for myself.

I think it's fun to look at people with big diamonds. I see them in my audience all the time, with the fur coat, a woman whose hand is always out front, or the two fingers are on the cheek to show her diamond. I don't have anything against that.

I used to love it when I walked down the street and construction workers would whistle.

I was considered an ugly duckling.

I wouldn't bother to describe me. I'm Eartha Kitt.

I'm a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don't trust diamonds and gold.

I'm an orphan. But the public has adopted me, and that has been my only family. The biggest family in the world is my fans.

I've always been multi-cultural myself. I'm not black and I'm not white and I'm not pink and I'm not green. Eartha Kitt has no color, and that is how barriers are broken.