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.

Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.

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.

Lust may be in the heart, though it be not seen by others; as guests may be in the house, though they look not out at the windows.

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

I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.

If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.