This be an empty world without the blues.

This be an empty world without the blues.

My audience wants to see me beautifully gowned, and I have spared no expense or pains . . . For I feel that the best is none too good for the public that pays to hear a singer.

A tune's like a staircase - walk up on it.

[Advice to Bessie Smith:] Let your soul do the singin'.

They hear it come out, but they don't know how it got there. They don't understand that's life's way of talking. You don't sing to feel better. You sing cause that's a way of understanding life.

I can't tell my future, so I'm going to tell my past.