“Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.”

New Orleans is the only city in the world you go in to buy a pair of nylon stockings they want to know your head size.

You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave.

There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.

The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.

Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.

When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.

The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can’t sing.

I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.

I don’t think I’m singing. I feel like I’m playing a horn, What comes out is what I feel.

You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.

Don’t be in such a hurry.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.

I just want to let everyone know I’m not a murderer.

The more unknowable the mystery, the more beautiful it is.

Between thinking and seeing, there is a place called knowing.

Religion. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

I chose life over death for myself and my friends. I believe it is in our nature to explore, to reach out into the unknown. The only true failure would be not to explore at all.

You are the loveliest thing that I have ever known.

In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time – none … ZERO.

I like predictability because I know what I’m getting into.