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.

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

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.

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.

Lust may be in the heart, though it be not seen by others; as guests may be in the house, though they look not out at the windows.

I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.

If I don't have friends, then I ain't nothing.

I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' as I do.

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.

God bless the child that's got his own.

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

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

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

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

I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.

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

One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.

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