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

The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.

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 hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

The chances you take, the people you meet, the people you love, the faith that you have. That’s what’s going to define you.

Nothing in nature is by chance. Something appears to be chance only because of our lack of knowledge.

A hopeless man sees difficulties in every chance, but a hopeful person sees chances in every difficulty.

The more decisive we become, the lesser the chance of saving our species and this planet from all the harm we have done.

If you fight with all your might, there is a chance of life; where as death is certain if you cling to your corner.

If you’ve never tried, how will you ever know if there’s any chance?

Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity.