They thought I was a success as soon as I started paying the bills.

Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home.

Baby, black promoters oppressed me before white promoters ever got hold of me. Don't talk skin to me.

If you want me to sing this Christmas song with the feeling and the meaning, you better see if you can locate that check.

When you are through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on.

The trouble with records is that they're too short.

I don't worry too much about the script, I just ad lib, like Pearl Bailey.