Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.

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.

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

God bless the child that's got his own.

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.

Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you - and kill you the long, slow, hard way.

God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.