“I'd always win the auditions, and finally the Schiffmanns, who owned t...” — Leslie Uggams Quote

“I'd always win the auditions, and finally the Schiffmanns, who owned the Apollo, said, 'We're never gonna get rid of this kid! Nobody else will get a chance.' So they put an act together for me and put me on the same bill with Louis Armstrong.”

“I was supposedly named after the Bette Davis character in 'The Letter' by my sister.”

“Kizzy is way up there, one of my favorite roles. And today, Kizzy is part of history. 'Roots' told a story that no one knew and that no one wanted people to know.”

“When I read that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 had disappeared - a state-of-the-art Boeing 777, said to be an incredibly safe way to travel - I waited patiently for the chance to learn what happened.”

“The '$O$' phase, it was like, 'Save Our Souls': we didn't know how we were going to get out of our situation... It was our last chance just to go all out. 'Ten$ion' was another phase, to maintain the tension we had, just to pretend nothing had happened and stay in that same furious, hungry zone.”

“That's the neat thing about the Olympics - so many of these athletes, they don't make a ton of money, they train for four years to compete, and they realize, 'Look, this is a blessing that I have this chance to represent the United States of America.'”