I can`t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain`t music, it`s close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.

People don`t understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.

Don`t threaten me with love, baby.

If I`m going to sing like someone else, then I don`t need to sing at all.

You can`t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you`re working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it`s got to be that way in music or it isn`t music.

Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what`s more than enough.

Her education was her search for the truth within herself. She used all of the things that happened in her life and made them work for her in her music. - singer/actress Sylvia Syms

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.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

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

Sometimes it`s worse to win a fight than to lose.

In this country, don`t forget, a habit is no damn private hell. There`s no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country it`s the worst kind of hell for those who love you.

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

If I don`t have friends, then I ain`t nothing.

I`m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I`ve been.

If you copy, it means you`re working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it`s got to be that way in music or it isn`t music.

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That`s all I know.

Don`t threaten me with love, baby. Let`s just go walking in the rain.

You can`t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you`re working without any real feeling.

Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you - and kill you the long, slow, hard way.

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.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.

No two people on earth are alike, and it`s got to be that way in music or it isn`t music.

If I don`t have friends, then I ain`t got nothing.

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

You`ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body`s sermon on how to behave.

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

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

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.