"When you're poor and black, you're born into a world that turns your heart into a tin can and anyone who is in the mood swings out and kicks you. You're only a hunk, a black creature in a white world …"

"I've been through a lot of changes, but I'm still the same old Billie."

"Justice is a joke in this country, and it's all in the hands of the white man."

"If you don't have something to die for, you don't have anything to live for."

"You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation."