All dope can do for you is kill you... the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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