In the '50s, critics used to say I had a 'dangerous' act.
— Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae is very shy. She's scared to be seen, scared of rejection and even afraid of affection. Relationships can be rather uncomfortable for her. But, as Eartha Kitt, it's fine. I can accept and reject any time I want to. Do I ever reject? Not really. Although people think I do!
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 was an illegitimate, well, I still am an illegitimate child.
If you're looking for immediate rewards, you're only looking for the money.
I was considered an ugly duckling.
I used to love it when I walked down the street and construction workers would whistle.
Innocence is one of the most exciting things in the world.
Maybe subconsciously I feel I was meant to work hard for a living.
I wouldn't bother to describe me. I'm Eartha Kitt.
Whenever I walk out on a stage, I'm begging for affection.
I do think that same gender partners should be able to be married. Why not? If you share a life together than who in the world should have anything to say about it?
People in general are used to seeing me as the naughty girl because that's what they've always cast me as.
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.
We're not thought of in terms of color because we are entertainers. We are there to entertain you not because we are black, white, pink, or green or gay or straight or because we are Catholic or Protestant.
Don't depend on other people to be responsible for you. Don't make yourself stressed out over nonsensical things like material things.
When the people who are responsible for our country ask you a direct question, I expect them to accept a direct answer, not to be blackballed because you are telling the truth.
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 never identified with anybody. I have always been very sensitive about my color, because everybody called me 'yellow gal.' I was caught in between both sides - nobody wanted me. I love that my audience is there, but I always feel as though I have to fend for myself.
I don't carry myself as a black person but as a woman that belongs to everybody. After all, it's the general public that made me - not any one particular group. So I don't think of myself as belonging to any particular group and never have.
I have to keep testing myself.
I don't think I ever really got interested in theater.
The audience has always been my best director.
You don't have to hit anybody on the head to be sexy.
I love men and I like to get their attention.
I fight for other people better than I fight for myself.
I am the last of the Mohicans, the creme de la creme of cabaret.
I don't wear my political feelings on my sleeve. However, if I'm asked, I will answer honestly.
Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.
In essence, I'm a sophisticated cotton picker.
This is where you see the truth of entertainment, because it is not edited. You see it on stage as it is happening. Even if we fall down or forget our words, it's a part of live entertainment.
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.
Just because you are different does not mean that you have to be rejected.
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.
I think it's fun to look at people with big diamonds. I see them in my audience all the time, with the fur coat, a woman whose hand is always out front, or the two fingers are on the cheek to show her diamond. I don't have anything against that.
I had almost three acres of land in Beverly Hills. And I had a big atrium of chickens because I love that feeling of being in the country and living from the soil.
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 am the original 'Material Girl.'
Generally the whole entertainment business now is bland.
I stayed on my own path and did not follow the herd. I made a way for myself.
I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut.
I love to tease men with my legs.
Even as a child, I found a way to survive.
Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.
I was a street dancer.
I've always been multi-cultural myself. I'm not black and I'm not white and I'm not pink and I'm not green. Eartha Kitt has no color, and that is how barriers are broken.
Dr. Einstein was not successful in school, but he found something in the air from his own imagination and his own brain power, and look what he did.
Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.
Jewelry, to me, is a pain in the derriere, because you have to be watching it all the time.
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.
