You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.

New Orleans is the only city in the world you go in to buy a pair of nylon stockings they want to know your head size.

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

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.

I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.

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

I don't think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.