I am so happy that I am alive and can walk.

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.

In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going.

I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing.

When I'm performing for the people, I am me, then. I am that little girl who, when she was five years old, used to sing at church. Or I'm that 15-year-old young lady who wanted to be grown and wanted to sing and couldn't wait to be smokin' a cigarette, you know?

The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.

And as I started reaching deeper I realized that most of the blues of that day was done by men. Women just didn't have the nerve.