“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.”

In the ’50s, critics used to say I had a ‘dangerous’ act.

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 was a street dancer.

Innocence is one of the most exciting things in the world.

Maybe subconsciously I feel I was meant to work hard for a living.

Eartha Mae is very shy. She’s scared to be seen, scared of rejection and even afraid of affection.

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.

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.

I think it’s fun to look at people with big diamonds.

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

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

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

The public has become my fairy godmother.

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.

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.

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.