“Good management has helped me find much of the success I've got.”

“Horns always influenced me more than voices.”

“I don't think I ever modeled myself after a singer. I've more or less copied the styles of horn-tooters right from the start.”

“I just get onstage and sing. I don't think about how I'm going to do it - it's too complicated.”

“I just quit in the third year of high school and started singing at amateur hours.”

“I just sing. I sing whatever I can.”

“The night I won at the Apollo, I was only doing it for the USD10.”

“There are notes between notes, you know.”

“What was the competition? Well, I remember this Puerto Rican who came out in a short skirt and a gun.”

“When I sing a tune, the lyrics are important to me. Most of the standard lyrics I know well. And as soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice.”

“When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice.”

“You have to have a little soul in your singing. The kind of soul that's in the spirituals. That's why I'd like to include spiritual material in the sets I do. It's a part of my life.”