Vodka is kind of a hobby.
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.
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.
The blues to me is like being very sad, very sick, going to church, being very happy. . . it's sort of a mixed up thing. You just have to feel it.
I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.
There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close order drill, or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.
I don't necessarily love all the collaborations that I've done; the more I work with other people, the more I realize that I want to work with myself.
You'll be sorry if you marry a man you don't love.
The first Decline I did was out of sheer love and appreciation for the music. In 1977, it was more about bands, because punk was a new form of music. It was groundbreaking and political.
The giving and receiving is the tricky thing. It's not the gift. It's what the heart says in giving the gift, and from my point of view, one doesn't give or receive - that's a role we have to play. But the gift - it's God's gift. I think that it's better to be souls than roles.