Charlie Chaplin is the greatest director of the screen. He's a pioneer. How he knows women!—oh, how he knows women! I do not cry easily when seeing a picture, but after seeing Charlie's A Woman of Paris I was all choked up—I wanted to go out in the garden and have it out by myself.

I used this as a force, saying to myself in the mirror, you should win for your father because he let you leave, because he believed in you

And I was incapable of living all by myself in those lodgings where I didn't know a soul. It terrified me to sit by myself quietly in my room. I felt frightened, as if I might be set upon or struck by someone at any moment.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people's minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

I am lucky not to have such bad habits. I only indulge myself in drinking wine and writing poetry. I am indeed indulgent, but what harm will that do?

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself by now and then finding a smooth pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

I could see you in your suit and your necktie
Passed me a note saying, "Meet me tonight"
Then we kiss, and you know I won't ever tell, yeah
And I could see you being my addiction
You can see me as a secret mission
Hide away and I will start behaving myself

I kinda live where I find myself.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

The Webbs are really gone! When I saw the waggons at the door, and thought of all the trouble they must have in moving, I began to reproach myself for not having liked them better, but since the waggons have disappeared my conscience has been closed again, and I am excessively glad they are gone.

I feel lonely as I gaze at the moon. I feel lonely as I think about myself, and I feel lonely as I ponder upon this wretched life of mine. I want to cry out that I am lonely, but no one asks me how I feel.

I hated every minute of it. But I said to myself, 'Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion'.

[Belafonte] was a good teacher and looked after me. He said, 'You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado - be like a submarine. It was good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly.

It's a lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believe in myself.

There was no intention of differentiating genres or fields. I was always involved in a variety of projects—depending on timing and circumstance. I’d like to continue challenging myself in various ways, such as movies, dramas and plays.

I have access to all the instruments here. On tour I just have the voice and the guitar, but I prefer recording at home where I can express myself. There is no time. Time moves differently here. It is more relaxing.