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

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.

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.

In this country kings or dukes don't amount to nothing. The greatest man around then was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was the President; so I started calling Lester the President. It got shortened to Pres.

I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do.

I never sing a song the same way twice.

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