Diahann Carroll

Diahann: I'm always getting involved in the wrong relationship. I do that very well.

Diahann: I like to think I opened doors for other women, although that wasn't my original intention.

Diahann: I learned quickly that almost any time a third world face became prominent on TV, we became responsible for the whole minority community.

Diahann: In the beginning, I found myself dealing with a show business dictated by male white supremacists and chauvinists. As a black female, I had to learn how to tap dance around the situation. I had to...find a way to present my point of view without being pushy or aggressive. In the old days, the only women I saw in this business were in makeup, hairdressing, and wardrobe departments. Now I'm surrounded by women executives, writers, directors, producers, and even women stagehands.

Diahann: All I ever wanted to do was sing. What happened was more.

Diahann (About being recognized from Dynasty): You know I figure young people would say, "Oh yes, that's right-Dynasty!" How one came upon Dynasty in the eighties is really more of a highlight than being on Dynasty.

Diahann: I considered Nat King Cole to be a friend and, in many ways, a mentor. He always had words of profound advice.

Diahann (on filming Hurry Sundown in St. Francisville, Louisiana; where the cast and the crew was receiving death threats because they were filming the movie in the home of the Ku Klux Klan): You can cut the hostility here with a knife. I'm not a fighter. I usually smile and then go into my room and cry my eyes out. But down here, the terror has killed my taste for going anywhere.