Quotes by Eartha Kitt

I don't think I ever really got interested in theater.

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

If you're looking for immediate rewards, you're only looking for the money.

I was a street dancer.

Santa cutie, there's one thing I really do need, the deed
To a platinum mine
Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With some decorations bought at Tiffany
I really do believe in you
Let's see if you believe in me.

Santa honey, I want a yacht and really that's not a lot
Been an angel all year
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree for me
Been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight.

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.

When Adam won Eve's hand,
He wouldn't stand
For teasin',
He didn't care about
Those apples out of season!
They say the Spring
Means just one thing
To little lovebirds;
We're not above birds,
Let's misbehave!

Thank God I got the rejects. These animals are very, very affectionate.

The thing that hurts, that became anger, was when I realized that if you tell the truth, in a country that says you're entitled to tell the truth, you get your face slapped and you get put out of work.

It's best if you can do things with a sense of humor and finesse.

I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut. I have a baby and then you send him off to war. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.

Everything should be done with moderation and using common sense.

You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.

I don't believe in bringing children into the world out of wedlock.

The boys that were running away from America because they didn't want to get involved with the Vietnam War had come to me. They would tell me how they felt.

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.

A cat is a cat. She has no race creed or collar.

I have used all the manure that has been thrown on me as fertilizer to make me stronger.

I was trying to find out who my father was. They say that at that time, that if you are illegitimate, the father doesn't have to put his name down on the certificate.

I've never felt that fear is my enemy. Fear is my friend. It offers me a chance to stay alert, keep growing, continue creating something new. If you don't take that sort of risk, you learn nothing.

When I played Lady Day, I took Aba onstage with me as a joke. He started singing-in tune!-and the audience loved it.

Sometimes it's good to fall down to see who will pick you up.

I don't go for very handsome men. Like they say in England, toy boys break too easily.

I was invited to a luncheon with 49 other women to give my opinions about the problematic situation among young people. They wanted me to talk about why is there so much juvenile delinquency in the streets of America.

I still can't go over a subway grating without looking down to see if there is some money there.

I've always accepted applause as making me feel worthwhile. I hope I die being applauded. Just put a chaise longue under me and let me go.

I always believe in living in the country, because that's where what I eat is what I can put back in the dirt.

I am the original Material Girl.

When my baby was born I had to know how to save her in case she fell in the pool or something like that. I went to one of these nursing places to learn how to take care of the child.

A man has always wanted to lay me down but he never wanted to pick me up.

I am supposed to be, according to what I am told, one of the children of the cotton plantation owner's sons. If I could prove that, I'd own the whole goddamn everything.

I have been nominated three times. I have the little pieces of paper to prove it.

I take life for what it has to offer me. I don't get aggravated about getting older. The wrinkles on my face are a natural process, so why should I get angry?

In 1992, fans of our feline temptress got another chance to sink their claws into the new and exciting tales of Catwoman in 'Batman: The Animated Series.'

People these days are thinking less and drinking more.

Young ghetto boys thought that in this society, the good guys lost and the bad guys won.

I'm very happy with what the gods have given me. I take life as she presents herself to me, and whatever you see in my face is what I have earned.

I love being in America. I used to love traveling and I am glad that I was able to go around the world. I still love to go to Europe, but I always want to come home.

I was an illegitimate, well, I still am an illegitimate child.

Live theater to me is much more free than the movies or television.

I don't have to have the biggest house or the biggest car or the longest mink, but quality of life is really glamorous.

I thought Britney Spears was absolutely marvelous in the beginning. But now I think she's gone off the deep end.

As the 'Batman' TV series was returning to ABC for its second season in 1967, the TV bosses decided to take Catwoman into another direction... lucky for me.

When the 'Batman' TV series was taken to the silver screen, one of America's favourite sweethearts would don the mask and claws of Catwoman.

I was called a naughty girl only because I was singing naughty songs.

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!

Dallas is where Kennedy was shot, and that's where I was put in jail.

It's all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.

Whenever I walk out on a stage, I'm begging for affection.

Having my animals or my children with me exorcises that feeling of not being wanted.

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. 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 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 was considered an ugly duckling.

I used to love it when I walked down the street and construction workers would whistle.

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.

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?

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.

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.

The public has become my fairy godmother.

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.

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.

Even as a child, I found a way to survive.

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.

You don't move just because you want to go from this point to that point -- the body has to be using the words as well as you vocally use the words.

I used to teach dance lessons.

I was given away. If your mother gives you away, you think everybody who comes into your life is going to give you away.

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 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.'

I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.

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.

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.

I'm a dirt person. I trust the dirt. I don't trust diamonds and gold.

I have to keep testing 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.

Jewelry, to me, is a pain in the derriere, because you have to be watching it all the time.

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.

You don't have to hit anybody on the head to be sexy.

People in general are used to seeing me as the naughty girl because that's what they've always cast me as.

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

I punish myself more than anybody else does if I am stupid about my actions, and I suffer, really suffer.

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.

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.

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.

Don't depend on other people to be responsible for you. Don't make yourself stressed out over nonsensical things like material things.

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

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

Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.

Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.

In essence, I'm a sophisticated cotton picker.