"I've been told I'm a good actress, but I never got a chance to prove it. I'd like to do a picture with Spencer Tracy."

"As mother and daughter yelled at each other, Billie screamed, 'God bless the child that's got his own!'"

"I don't like to be told what to do. I like to do what I want to do."

"The blues to me is like a prayer. It's a way of talking to God."

"I never had a mother, never had a father, never had a home, I never had a husband. I just had me."