“My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play…” — Etta James

People always say 'Etta, you know what your problem is? You're neither fish nor fowl. There is no place to rack you.' When I would go in a record shop, you might find one or two records by me in different stacks.

My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday.

I was a sloppy kid, wanted to be just wild.

I'm not a bourgeois person, never will be.