The stage floor was a stage of thin ice for me to tread. To hold my own or to sink through and die, never to be remembered.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.

It's best if you can do things with a sense of humor and finesse.

I am a mother and I know the feeling of having a baby come out of my gut. I have a baby and then you send him off to war. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.

I'm very happy with what the gods have given me. I take life as she presents herself to me, and whatever you see in my face is what I have earned.

When I played Lady Day, I took Aba onstage with me as a joke. He started singing-in tune!-and the audience loved it.

Greed is so destructive. It destroys everything.