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

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

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

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

I think I copied my style from Louis Armstrong. Because I used to like the big volume and the big sound that Bessie Smith got when she sang ... So I liked the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the big volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found that it didn't work with me, because I didn't have a big voice. So anyway between the two of them I sorta got Billie Holiday.

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.

The difficult I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.