I got the message. All of us get the message, sooner or later. If you get it before it's too late or before you're too old, you'll pull through all right.

Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.

Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.

I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.

If I could read it, I could play it.

Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.