“Coming through the years, and finding that I not only have just the fans of my day, but the young ones of today – that’s what it means, it means it was worth all of it.”

Every time I look down on this timeless town, whether blue or gray be her skies, whether loud be her cheers, or whether soft be her tears, more and more do I realize that. I love Paris.

Whatever she does to my songs, she always makes them sound better.

I think I do better when I sing.

I guess what everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved. And to know that you loved me for my singing is too much for me. Forgive me if I don’t have all the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.

Everybody wants to know about my style and how it came about. It’s no big secret. It’s the way I feel.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.

She has been more famous, over a longer time span, than any other female singer.

I’ve had some wonderful love affairs and some that didn’t work out. I don’t want to dwell on that and I don’t want to put people down, but I think all the fabulous places I’ve been, the wonderful things that have happened for me, the great people I’ve met – that ought to make a story.

Music is the universal language. It brings people closer together.

When I’m on stage I feel at home

Ella knows her way around her voice as very few people today. But there are times when she seems to be unaware there are things the human voice just doesn’t do. She does them.

What everyone wants more than anything else is to be loved.

I don’t want to say the wrong thing, which I always do. I think I do better when I sing.

The only thing better than singing is more singing.

It isn’t where you came from, its where you’re going that counts.

I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.

These things happen. One day you run everything, and the next day you run like a dog.

These are beautiful days. Folks ask what I’m doing. I tell them I’m doing family.

I miss you a little less each day. You’re just a faded memory now – delicate; tucked away.

My day begins and ends with gratitude and joy.

Every day declare for yourself what you want in life. Declare it as though you have it!

The reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day.

I think if I was going to be someone for a day, I would want to be a performer, someone big, like Rihanna. I’d want to feel the energy of being on stage. I’ve always found that very interesting.

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.