I sing like I feel.
Forgive me if I don’t have the words. Maybe I can sing it and you’ll understand.
It isn’t where you came from, its where you’re going that counts.
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.
When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.
The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.
A lot of singers think all they have to do is exercise their tonsils to get ahead. They refuse to look for new ideas and new outlets, so they fall by the wayside… I’m going to try to find out the new ideas before the others do.
I am the sum total of everything that I have experienced musically.
Its all about finding the right note at the right place and knowing when to leave it alone.
If I’m not saying it in four choruses or less, then I’m not saying it.
When you know the lyrics to a tune, you have some kind of insight as to it’s composition.
I don’t care about the rules, if I don’t break the rules at least 10x every song then I’m not doing my job.
I never heard of a Jazz musician who retired. You love what you do, so what are you going to do… play for the walls?
People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.
The only award I’ve ever worked for or wanted really were the ones that were given to me by the fans. So, whether it’s a platinum record or hit songs, those are the ones that last the most.
I don’t try to please when I play. I try to cure.
Every time I see a musician – it doesn’t matter what age – that inspires me, there’s always a secret little wish that maybe we’ll play together, because that’s how I learn and grow and so forth, you know. But hopefully there’s a lot more.
I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.
A good quartet is like a good conversation among friends interacting to each other’s ideas.
You usually can’t tell what’s inspiring until you look back on it.
Especially, I want my work-and the trios if possible-to sing.
Early on, I figured out that when the top of a guitar is vibrating and a string is vibrating, you’ve got a conflict. One of them has got to stop, and it can’t be the string, because that’s making the sound. So in 1934, I asked the Larson Brothers—Chicago instrument makers—to build me a guitar with a half-inch-thick maple top and no f-holes. They thought I was crazy.
