Sammy Davis, Jr.'s Quotes

I bought a house in the Hollywood Hills and brought my grandmother from Harlem to live in it with me.

I didn't hate being 60 as much as I had 50.

I don't have many easy songs.

I go to temple a lot less than I would like because when I do, people still look at me as if they think it's a publicity stunt.

I had traveled 10 states and played over 50 cities by the time I was 4.

I hadn't been in Vegas 20 minutes when I got word that the bookmakers were offering three to one that Frank wouldn't show for my wedding.

I was so opposed to the war in Vietnam that I initially refused President Nixon's urgings for me to go there.

Marilyn and I were rumored to be an item. We were friends. Nothing more. Marilyn was one of the sweetest creatures that ever lived.

May was young and beautiful, we were legally married, but she was caught in the prison of my skin.

My home has always been show business.

Real success is not on the stage, but off the stage as a human being, and how you get along with your fellow man.

Ten million dollars after I'd become a star I was deeply in debt.

The civil rights movement wasn't easy for anybody.

The manic pursuit of success cost me everything I could love: my wife, my three children, some friends I would have liked to grow old with.

The one thing you don't want is that stale sound when you've done a line so much you can't find a fresh approach to it. Drop it.

There are certain romances that belong in certain cities, in a certain atmosphere, in a certain time.

There are lines that I know are going to get a belly laugh, but after a few shows I get sick of hearing myself say them so I drop them.

There's nothing that can match Broadway for stature and dignity.

Though I love the luxury of the Waldorf Towers, room service there doesn't do soul food.

To appear on the stage drunk, to have them leave there and remember me making drunken mistakes, that was death.

We can't answer King's assassination with violence. That would be the worst tribute we could pay him.

When Liza Minelli was a child, she used to sit on my lap and call me Uncle Sammy.

Would it be better if I'd married a Negro woman? Would they treat my child any better? Erect fewer barriers?

You can be in this business 50 years and still not know anything about it.

You don't swing where you sleep.

Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity.