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.

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.

I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I'm playing a horn...What comes out is what I feel.

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

When you sing, always tell the truth.

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

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