When I sing, I believe. I'm honest. If you want to get an audience with you, there's only one way. You have to reach out to them with total honesty and humility.

You've either got or you haven't got style, and if you've got it you stand out a mile.

Don't respond to negativity with more negativity. Just put your head down and prove your critics wrong.

Dyin' is a pain in the ass.

You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough.

I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked more often than not. I'm very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don't understand them.

With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.