My greatest teacher was not a vocal coach, not the work of other singers, but the way Tommy Dorsey breathed and phrased on the trombone.

The martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.

It took me a long, long time to learn what I now know, and I don't want that to die with me.

You may be a puzzle, but I like the way the parts fit.

I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women.

Here's to the confusion of our enemies!

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.