Quote collection
51 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Them that's got shall get, Them that's not shall lose. So the Bible says, And it still is news. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own."
"Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three."
"You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling."
"So I asked him to play "Trav'lin' All Alone." That came closer than anything to the way I felt. And some part of it must have come across. The whole joint quieted down. If someone had dropped a pin, it would have sounded like a bomb. When I finished, everybody in the joint was crying in their beer, and I picked thirty-eight bucks up off the floor. . . . When I showed Mom the money for the rent and told her I had a regular job singing for eighteen dollars a week, she could hardly believe it."
"Don't be in such a hurry."
"If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all."
"A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted."
"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."
"They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now, I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon, but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning."
"If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you're out of your mind. There are more kicks to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung."
"And when you're poor, you grow up fast."
"Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck."
"God bless the child that's got his own."
"One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head."
"I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter."
"I never sing a song the same way twice."
"All dope can do for you is kill you... the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you."
"I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do."
"The blues to me is like being very sad, very sick, going to church, being very happy ... it's sort of a mixed up thing. You just have to feel it."