“So be encouraged and dedicate yourself to your dream and if your dream should come my way one day then we will dance upon the boards of life.”

I go to my grandchildren. They keep their grandpa informed on what’s going on.

Sometimes we look for those thunderous things to happen in our life for our lives to change or go in the other direction. We seek the miracle. We seek the parting of the seas, the moving of the mountains. But no, its a quiet thing. At least for me it was.

The stage sharpened my creative instrument and encouraged me to go deeper and try new things.

If we plant the right seeds, tomorrow will be better. If you put out good things, then you’ll get good things back. That’s part of our responsibility as entertainers.

I didn’t know who Langston Hughes was till he met me backstage.

You’ve got to make haste while it’s still light of day. My godmother used to say, I don’t want to rust out, I just want to work out. If you stand still long enough, people will throw dirt on you.

Nine years after I had my own accident, I find that in trying to go back to doing those things that I used to do just doesn’t fit. Everything seems to just fall apart. I don’t know why but I think it is because I am this new creature.

Our creator says, ‘Here’s your birth and here’s your death’ – and the rest are the things you learn on your journey. This was my experience – and the choice is, I can lay in the misery, or choose to learn from it and move on.

The death of my daughter is a subject I talk about briefly because there is nothing more tragic.

When people come and see my show, I try to infuse into them that they can walk away feeling like their lives are a victory.

I used to dance, but now I only move.

You’ve got to make haste while it’s still light of day.

I love sharing my story. It’s endlessly healing.

I want to show people what the possibilities are if you take care of yourself and do the right thing.

Ive been blessed to be in a position to share (my experiences).

The theater was my first training ground. It taught me discipline, dedication and appreciation of hard work.

Live everyday as though it’s your last ’cause one day you’ll be right.

one day I’ll be old, without ever having really been young

I have this fear that one day there’s going to be a fire in the Senate and there are only going to be 57 senators there and they’ll all die because they won’t have 60 votes to allow themselves to leave the building.

China hasn’t only existed for one day. Now, the whole nation has become richer and it’s become a problem. The problem is universal. The factor is big. Everybody has to rethink the balance of the world and the whole landscape.