A man doesn't know what happiness is until he's married. By then it's too late.

I don't know what other singers feel when they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an overacute capacity for sadness as well as elation.

It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me.

There are several things I think I would have done if I had the chance again. I would have been a little more patient about getting out into the world. I would have seen to it that I had a more formal education. I would have become an accomplished mu

Nothing anybody's said or written about me ever bothers me, except when it does.

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

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.