"I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know."

"I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old."

"Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three."

"If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."

"Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain."

"In this country, don't forget, a habit is no damn private hell. There's no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country it's the worst kind of hell for those who love you."

"I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own."

"No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."

"They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now, I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon, but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning."

"You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave."

"One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head."

"All dope can do for you is kill you... the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you."

"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling."

"There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up."

"Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose."

"Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on."

"People don't understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it."

"Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you - and kill you the long, slow, hard way."

"A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted."

"Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck."

"If I don't have friends, then I ain't got nothing."