Etta Quotes & Sayings

Country music has the great stories. — Etta James

I've learned to live with rage. In some ways, it's my rage that keeps me going. Without it, I would have been whipped long ago. With it, I got a lot more songs to sing. — Etta James

What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries. — Etta James

When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing. — Etta James

I've gone through so much in my life. I should have been dead a long time ago, but I am still here, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. — Etta James

My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. — Etta James

I was privileged to know the late, great Miss Etta James, and I did get a chance to spend some time with her and hang out with her. — Jennifer Holliday

I want you to remember that - it's our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, not words, not promises." Etta — Alexandra Bracken

I want a Sunday kind of love
A love to last past Saturday night
And I'd like to know it's more than love at first sight — Etta James

Most of the songs I sing have that blues feeling in it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. I don't. — Etta James

Quote taken from Chapter 1:
A grave matter has just arisen." Etta hadn't intended to make the pun. She went on. "It's a problem right up your alley. — Ed Lynskey

She didn't need a protector or a rescuer. But she did need him. — Alexandra Bracken

I had hooked up my iPod to the speakers. The air was filled with the raw, sexy purr of Etta James. "The thing that's great about the blues," I told Luke, pausing to sip from my glass of wine, "is that it's about feeling, loving, wanting without the brakes on. No one's brave enough to live that way. Except maybe musicians. — Lisa Kleypas

Etta James is my all-time favorite singer. I've said it in every interview, in every story, in every on- and off-camera question. That music was always such a huge escape for me, even from a young age. — Christina Aguilera

Half the men worship at her feet; the other half have already proposed marriage, including young Jack, who has sworn to his dear 'miss' that he'll be true if she'll only wait a few more years for him. — Alexandra Bracken

And you know what the truly sad thing is, Etta?" Sophia whispered. "If he'd asked, if he'd put his case forward, Grandfather would have considered it. I know he would have. Because being born a bastard in this family is still preferable to being born a girl. — Alexandra Bracken

Etta saw the way Sophia took a deep breathe, set her shoulders back, and moved with practiced grace on her way out - and she understood something about the other girl, truly understood for the first time. Sophia wanted it, when she was only ever sent out. — Alexandra Bracken

His presence was larger-than-life, bigger even than his physical body. — Alexandra Bracken

That's beautiful," she said.
He turned to her. "Would you like me to go take that violin for you? I'd gladly fight whatever angry mob rises up if it might make you smile."
Her heart just about burst at that. Be brave. "I would only want to play for you. — Alexandra Bracken

My background was always more soulful pop. I was named after Ella Fitzgerald, and when I was a kid, I was listening to Lauryn Hill, Etta James, Joss Stone. For me, it was always about the voice. — Ella Eyre

I am so happy that I am alive and can walk. — Etta James

Topeka meant, "a good place to find potatoes". That made Dorothy laugh. But any place is what you make it said etta. You've got to make it home. You've got to do it for yourself ... It's difficult because everybody wants to be loved and you think you can't find a home unless you are loved by somebody, anybody. But it's not true. Sometimes you can learn to live without being loved. It's terribly hard, but you can do it. The trick is to remember what it's like to be loved. — Geoff Ryman

His skin smelled sweet, like milk and honey, and he'd shaved and trimmed his hair. Etta ran a hand over it.

"You're looking especially clean this morning," she said.

"I couldn't sleep," he said, "so I brought water up for a bath, and then more for you. The water should still be warm."

Pure joy exploded in her. "I could kiss you for that!"

"By all means," he said coyly. "Don't hold yourself back on my account. — Alexandra Bracken

I wish you'd go a a little easier on him," she said.
"He came in here thrashing a sword around. Was I supposed to stand idly by and do nothing?" he huffed.
"Well, you weren't supposed to try and rearrange his face with your fist."
"I wasn't," Nicholas protested. "He lunged up into it several times. I was only in the way."
"You're ridiculous," she informed him. — Alexandra Bracken

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore. — Etta James

How do you fight against a mountain? How do you move it when you don't even have a shovel?" "Maybe you don't have to move it," Etta said, folding the gown over the lid of the trunk. "Maybe you have to climb it. — Alexandra Bracken

That's where it begins and ends for me and these songs were the ones that touched me the deepest. It was like I was laying hold of some part of me that I didn't even know was there until I let it out. — Etta James

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music — Etta James

The nice thing about life," said Miss Etta, "is you never know when there's going to be a party. — Earl Hamner Jr.

Around the time I opened my second restaurant, Etta's, I had just finished judging at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Back home in Seattle, my goal was to recreate the sweet and smoky taste of that BBQ using our local wild king salmon instead of pig. — Tom Douglas

I figured I could do 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World', because I believe it's the truth. — Etta James

There is something about you, Etta. Something in you that cannot be quenched, by hardship or ill treatment. Your soul gleams like silver beneath a patina of hard use. He is right to love you. Any man would love you. — Robin Hobb

WINIFRED - WHO, IT SEEMED, HAD BEEN LISTENING AT THE DOOR - handed her a pair of shoes as soon as Etta emerged from the office. By the time Henry appeared at her side, a light coat over his suit jacket, the woman had faded back down the shadows of the hallway like the ghoul she was.
"No coat?" he asked, eyeing her up and down.
"Darling Winifred didn't think I needed one, apparently," she said. One of the guards chuckled into his fist, earning him a swat across the chest from the other.
Henry looked mildly startled. "Your mother called her that as well."
"My mother met that woman and they both survived it?"
One corner of his mouth twitched, and the parts of her that were still raw, and awkward - and, worse - unsure, eased. "I never said they emerged unscathed. — Alexandra Bracken

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. — Etta James

Now I can stand up on the stage again like I used to after five years of sitting down while I sang. — Etta James

It's not about battling the original artists when I record these songs, it's about paying tribute to them. — Etta James

She breathed deeply of the freedom she found in Mattie's presence. Here she had no choice but to be herself. The carefully erected decoys she was constantly shuffling and changing to fit the situation were of no use here. Etta and Mattie went way back, a singular term that claimed co-knowledge of all the important events in their lives and almost all of the unimportant ones. And by rights of this possession, it tolerated no secrets. — Gloria Naylor

I have been influenced by many different artists at many different stages of my life. Starting out, it was people like Elton John, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and Fiona Apple. As I got older I got deeper into the work of bands like the Beatles, artists like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Etta James, and Joni Mitchell. — Sara Bareilles

They had met at a club fifteen years before, Etta and Magnus. He had convinced her to dance with him, and she said she had been in love by the end of the song. He told her he had been in love before the beginning. — Cassandra Clare

The band in the ballroom announced the cover of a special request, and after a pause, the woman's voice sang out the breathy first line of Etta James's "At Last." Chairs barked as guests rose to greet the champion of all wedding songs, the one that always brought indifferent or fighting or estranged couples to the dance floor for momentary reconciliation. — Mira Jacob

Alice interrupted. No tears, no secrets. I want the life I'm meant to have, Etta. It's as simple as that. My father always says that the way to truly live is to do so without expectations or fear hanging over you, affecting your choices ... — Alexandra Bracken

Oh my God you are despicable!" Etta snarled.
"Careful, madam, blasphemy is still a sin-"
Even if Nicholas had been the gambling sort, he never would have wagered a single coin on her next words being "Then I guess I'll see you in hell! — Alexandra Bracken

I sing the songs that people need to hear. — Etta James

I grew up loving Etta James and Aretha Franklin and Al Green and Otis Redding, and I just love old-school R&B. It's just music that moves you and grooves you, and it was very important, I think, for music. — Elle King

We fit together better than James with Etta. — Jasmine Sandozz

Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about. — Etta James

The first songs I learned was 'Crazy' by Patsy Cline and 'At Last' by Etta James. I had been growing up with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, great bands. — Sabrina Carpenter

Do you think you're taking Etta out of here?"
"Yes," Kennit called over his shoulder up the sairs.
"What about all these dead men?" she shrieked after him as they strode out of her house.
"Those you may keep," Kennit replied. — Robin Hobb

Quote is taken from Chapter 1:
Since Etta could log in her rare Baltimore oriole sighting, she decided she'd had enough birding for one day. It was just a fun hobby, not an obsession. — Ed Lynskey

The music was thunder and joy. Lightning bolts of happiness and praise, foot-stomping, dance-shouting, good-feeling singing from the soul. — Etta James

She set her shoulders back, meeting his gaze with a challenge. "You call that a kiss?" One corner of his mouth quirks up. "We haven't the time for a proper one, pirate. Now tell me, where precisely are we? — Alexandra Bracken

When Malcolm X was assassinated I was working at the Apollo. They brought his body to the Unity Funeral Home, which was around the corner. — Etta James

The anger that had flooded her veins was so pure, she thought it must have turned her blood to acid. You could read a hundred books about the attitudes and beliefs of the past, but the impact of witnessing this casual, ignorant cruelty firsthand was like having a bucket of ice upended over your head. It forced Etta to see that the centuries padding this time and hers, along with simple privilege, had protected her from the true ugliness of it. People believed this trash, and they were spreading it around like it was nothing. Like they weren't even talking about humans. Etta — Alexandra Bracken

A few years ago, I thought, I'll never make it. I started to go to the doctor to help me lose weight. — Etta James

Sugar got her beauty from her mama, was Theo's first impression, but this woman did not strike him as having a heart of gold. She looked rich and mean, the opposite of his own mother, and he felt proud that Sugar had turned out the way she had despite that. — Sarah-Kate Lynch

Rest assured," he said, when he managed to find his voice, "there will always be a position for you on my ship."
Her face brightened with her clever, beautiful smile. "Will you let me climb up into the rigging? Reef the sails?"
A burst of thunder rolled through him. "Absolutely not."
She laughed again. "As if you could stop me. — Alexandra Bracken

I really do love bluesy-jazzy music, so I love Etta James, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. I love that they have soul in their voices - I think that's something important is having. — Bridgit Mendler

He would not surrender to the disaster of loving her. — Alexandra Bracken

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool. — Etta James

They said that Etta James is still vulgar. I said, Oh, how dare them say I'm still vulgar. I'm vulgar because I dance in the chair. What would they want me to do? Want me to just be still or something like that? I've got to do something. — Etta James

Bobby Womack is always very real, both with his music and as a person. — Etta James

The only time that I am really truly happy - when I feel at my best - is when I'm on the stage. — Etta James

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song. — Etta James

How about a kiss, hey?" Etta liked that she was still able to startle him, just a little. The blank look of concentration broke as he barked out a laugh. "I don't know if that's a wise idea. We'd never leave. — Alexandra Bracken

As a kid, I was listening to Aretha Franklin, Etta James and hip-hop as well as music my parents were listening to, like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. — Alanis Morissette

When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems. — Etta James

I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay. — Etta James

It feels so good to be happy. — Etta James

Once you lose the weight, you're really anxious to eat healthy. — Etta James

I like to shop, but I don't like to go out to dances. — Etta James

It's the same thing now. When I go onstage the young people scream and holler as much as the older generation. — Etta James

But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage. — Etta James

Even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude. — Etta James

This is an album of songs that I've always loved, tunes that I heard. For the first time in 53 years of recording, I really had control over an entire album, start to finish. — Etta James

A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies. — Etta James

I'm not a braggart, but when I was a little girl people used to come from all over Hollywood to hear me sing. — Etta James

I tried to comfort him. I tried to tell him it might be chance, not destiny, that has put him here. Do you know what he said?"
"That there is no chance, only destiny."
Her hands paused. "How did you know?"
"It is one of the cornerstones of Sa's teachings. That destiny is not reserved for a few chosen ones. Each man has a destiny. Recognizing it and fulfilling it are the purpose of a man's life."
"It seems a burdensome teaching to me."
Kennit shook his head against the pillow. "If a man can believe it, then he can know he is as important as any other man. He can also know that he is no more important than any other is. It creates a vast equality of purpose."
p. 530: Etta to Kennit — Robin Hobb

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

I'm not starry eyed, and I'm not money crazy. — Etta James

Well," Etta said weakly, "she's always told me a good challenge builds character."
"Then we'll have an excess of it," he said dryly. — Alexandra Bracken

I don't need a protector," Etta said. "I need a partner. — Alexandra Bracken

Etta released a soft "Oofph!" as her feet struck the floor, and they were suddenly wrapped in cool, dry air. Nicholas's grip on her hand tightened as the world fell into place around them.

They weren't falling off the side of a cliff. They hadn't been shot dead on sight, run through by sword or bayonet. And they hadn't emerged into a crocodile-filled swamp, or in the middle of a crowded market, or for that matter, in a burning building. So he supposed he should be grateful. But he was mostly exhausted. — Alexandra Bracken

I wanted to find something that would make Mom proud of me. Something I could excel at.' she told him. 'But some part of me thought that if I was out there performing, if everyone knew my name, I might reach my father or his family. They might recognize me. They'd hear my music and want to come find me. Know me.'
'I heard you, Etta,' he said softly. 'I heard you. — Alexandra Bracken

My mother always wanted me to be glamorous. When I thought about that, it really fired me up, and once I lost all those pounds, I started to feel really good about myself. — Etta James

You can't fake this music. You might be a great singer or a great musician but, in the need, that's got nothing to do with it. It's how you connect to the songs and to the history behind them. — Etta James

The pain bursts through Etta like caffeine, — Emma Hooper

And as I started reaching deeper I realized that most of the blues of that day was done by men. Women just didn't have the nerve. — Etta James

P.S. I know you have gone to see the water, and you should see it, Etta, you should, but, in case there are other reasons you've left, in case there are things you have discovered or undiscovered that you didn't want to tell me in person, in that case, you can always tell me here. Tell me here and we can never mention it outside of paper and ink (or pencil). — Emma Hooper

Rise and enter the lair, where the darkness gives you your stripes. Tell tyrants, to you, their allegiance they owe," Etta read, running her finger beneath the words within the star. "Seek out the unknown gods whose ears were deaf to lecture. Stand on the shoulders of memory. Bring a coin to the widowed queen. Remember, the truth is in the telling, and an ending must be final. — Alexandra Bracken

Etta, it could be everything, it could be nothing, what you're making up. You shouldn't let that bother you. — Emma Hooper

Gwen," Etta said, "I don't know what in the kingdom you were thinking when you told us to pack our stuff-you know we ain't got no stuff. — Michael J. Sullivan

Etta grins, compliments swallowed when she sees they're clearly not required. — Menna Van Praag

My mother was a jazz fanatic and she wanted me to play the piano so I could play jazz tunes. I wish I had learned but I was too busy getting into trouble! — Etta James

We have good days and bad days. You told me, once, to just remember to breathe. As long as you can do that, you're doing something Good, you said. Getting rid of the old, and letting in the new. And, therefore, moving forward. Making progress. That's all you have to do to move forward, sometimes, you said, just breathe. So don't worry, Etta, if nothing else, I am still breathing. — Emma Hooper

Most of the songs I sing, they have that blue feeling to it. They have that sorry feeling. And I don't know what I'm sorry about. — Etta James

I was originally like a punker, know what I mean, like the punks are today, I'd spit in a minute. — Etta James

Etta gave Will a small, knowing smile. Will, sometimes you have to love people for who they are, not who you want them to be. — Deanna Lynn Sletten

For the longest time, I saw them as the end of my journey, but now I thing they were always meant to represent the beginning of yours. — Alexandra Bracken

My mother used to play nothing but Billie Holiday. — Etta James

The notes of the symphony of lives, desires, and revenge suddenly swelled into a chorus of generations, blasting through Etta's mind. — Alexandra Bracken