Top 48 Quotes About Lena Horne
#1. I think my most favorite subject was Lena Horne because she embodies soul and grace and elegance and street. She embodies everything and beauty, great beauty, so she was a favorite subject.
Carol Friedman
#2. People like Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Marlene Dietrich and Sammy Davis Jr. all walked me down this path of entertainment.
Dionne Warwick
#3. When I grew up, you wanted to look like Marlene Dietrich, Betty Grable. Fortunately, I didn't know that I really wanted to look like Lena Horne. When I grew up ... black stars were stigmatized. Nobody wanted to look like Lena Horne.
Dorian Corey
#4. It's not the weight of the load, but how you carry it.
~Lena Horne~
Trenice Carter
#5. My introduction of Whitney was that if there's going to be one performer for the next generation who combined the beauty and lyric phrasing of a Lena Horne with those Gospel fiery roots of an Aretha Franklin, it would be Whitney Houston.
Clive Davis
#6. There wouldn't be a Halle Berry or an Angela Bassett or a Cicely Tyson if there hadn't been a Lena Horne.
Dee Dee Bridgewater
#7. I was a 12 year old kid in Northern Idaho listening to Billie Holiday and Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan and Nat King Cole. This whole genre of music is a part of who I am.
Cheyenne Jackson
#8. Lena Horne is the sweetest and most adorable woman in the world.
Alvin Ailey
#9. I look at the careers of people I'm standing on the shoulders of. People like Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sarah Vaughan. These are icons I wanted to emulate, and I feel like they've been holding me up for quite a long time.
Dionne Warwick
#10. I want to play Lena Horne because I've always been fascinated with her. Her talent was astounding and more than that, her life story is incredible.
Naya Rivera
#11. I went to a lot of theatre. My parents were very involved with the performing arts. I went to nightclub shows when I was a little girl. We went to Florida and we would go to the Cocoanut Grove down there. We'd go see Lena Horne, Jimmy Durante, Sophie Tucker and Judy Garland.
Lainie Kazan
#12. Every film by Will Smith, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, Don Cheadle will have great acting and carry good messages in the film. The films starring those actors are the films I tell young people to watch for good acting and to view for quality movies.
Brian J. White
#13. Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
Lena Horne
#14. 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.
Lena Horne
#15. 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.
Lena Horne
#16. 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.
Lena Horne
#17. I told them I belong to the same organizations and clubs Mrs. Roosevelt belongs to, but with a few brave exceptions, I was still unable to do films or television for the next seven years.
Lena Horne
#18. I disconnected myself to shield myself from people who would sway to my songs in the club and call me 'nigger' in the street. They were too busy seeing their own preconceived image of a Negro woman. the image that I chose to give them was of a woman who they could not reach and therefore can't hurt.
Lena Horne
#19. 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.
Lena Horne
#20. I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.
Lena Horne
#21. Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.
Lena Horne
#22. I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.
Lena Horne
#23. 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.
Lena Horne
#24. Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.
Lena Horne
#25. You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.
Lena Horne
#26. A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.
Lena Horne
#27. It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.
Lena Horne
#28. I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.
Lena Horne
#29. Always be smarter than those who hire you
Lena Horne
#30. My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
Lena Horne
#31. 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.
Lena Horne
#32. You have to be taught to be secondclass;your not born that way
Lena Horne
#33. I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
Lena Horne
#34. Count Basie isn't just a man, or even just a band. He's a way of life.
Lena Horne
#35. 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.
Lena Horne
#36. In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.
Lena Horne
#37. Music became my refuge and then my salvation.
Lena Horne
#38. It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
Lena Horne
#39. I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
Lena Horne
#40. It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.
Lena Horne
#42. 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.
Lena Horne
#43. The best thing about living ... Is the chance to keep on doing it!
Lena Horne
#44. 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].
Lena Horne
#45. I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
Lena Horne
#46. As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.
Lena Horne
#47. 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.
Lena Horne
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