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

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

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

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.

And when you're poor, you grow up fast.

If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you're out of your mind. There are more kicks to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung.

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.