“I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.”

“If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.”

“And in the background of Early's story was her voice. Her soul. Her sadness and longing. Because when it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday. p. 81”

“Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.”

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

“Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three.”

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

“No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.”

“Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.”

“I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.”

“There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.”