I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years.

Them that's got shall get, Them that's not shall lose. So the Bible says, And it still is news. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own.

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.

I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.

The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can't sing.

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

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