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

"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."

"No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music."

"You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation."

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