Let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.
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. 
Even as a child, I found a way to survive. 
I was given away. If your mother gives you away, you think everybody who comes into your life is going to give you away. 
Truth is a theory that is constantly being disproved. Only lies, it seems, go on forever. 
In the '50s, critics used to say I had a 'dangerous' act. 
If you're looking for immediate rewards, you're only looking for the money. 
I sent my daughter 40 roses last November because I thought she was 40. And she laughed her head off. She is not going to be 40 until this year! 
In essence, I'm a sophisticated cotton picker. 
The public has become my fairy godmother. 
Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected. 
My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions. 
I was considered an ugly duckling. 
The price we pay for being ourselves is worth it. 
I don't believe in bringing children into the world out of wedlock. 
Jewelry, to me, is a pain in the derriere, because you have to be watching it all the time. 
I'm a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don't trust diamonds and gold. 
I am always trying to eat the right kind of foods that are going to keep me healthy. 
I fall in love with myself, and I want someone to share it with me. And I want someone to share me, with me. 
I'm still with that feeling that I am afraid of doing the wrong thing, because somebody is going to punish me. 
Whenever I walk out on a stage, I'm begging for affection. 
I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer. 
You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot. 
Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that. 
Young ghetto boys thought that in this society, the good guys lost and the bad guys won. 
I have been nominated three times. I have the little pieces of paper to prove it. 
I don't think I ever really got interested in theater. 
I wouldn't bother to describe me. I'm Eartha Kitt. 
Thank God you've got a sense of humor, or you'd be in trouble. 
I was an illegitimate, well, I still am an illegitimate child. 
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 love to tease men with my legs. 
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. 
Dallas is where Kennedy was shot, and that's where I was put in jail. 
I am learning all the time. My tombstone will be my diploma. 
People in general are used to seeing me as the naughty girl because that's what they've always cast me as. 
I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut. 
I used to teach dance lessons. 
I stayed on my own path and did not follow the herd. I made a way for myself. 
I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. 