When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.

My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble!

Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude.

My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy.

I am so happy that I am alive and can walk.

I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute.

See, I don't like places where people can't dance - don't like clubs or theatres where a bunch of bourgeois people sit around tip, tip, tipping their fingers.

I sing the songs that people need to hear.

People that can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.

The only time that I am really truly happy—when I feel at my best—is when I'm on the stage.

I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.

I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight

It feels so good to be happy.

I’ve learned to live with rage. In some ways, it’s my rage that keeps me going. Without it, I would have been whipped long ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing.

When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.

The music was thunder and joy. Lightning bolts of happiness and praise, foot-stomping, dance-shouting, good-feeling singing from the soul.

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song.

In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going.