Something was still there, that something that distinguishes an artist from a performer: the revealing of self. Here I be. Not for long, but here I be. In sensing her mortality, we sensed our own.
ATTRIBUTION:
Studs Terkel (b. 1912), U.S. author, broadcaster. Talking to Myself, bk. 4, ch. 4 (1977).
On seeing Billie Holliday perform in Chicago, 1956.