I'm very happy to have a small, long, career instead of one big hit and then oblivion.

It may be that my most helpful contributions to music aren't my compact discs but my articles about other great singers of the past for American Heritage magazine.

Thank God for beautiful songs about feeling despair when you yourself are in despair. They really get us through.

Please believe that I do this because I am convinced that my illness cannot be helped for any length of time and I cannot bear to be a burden on anyone any longer.

I have complete artistic control, and I just do my best album every time and trust it to fate.

When I dance, I love the romance and sexiness of it, and love having it be clear to both dancers that the man leads! But the man has to know what he's doing!

Somebody called me a 'bruised romantic' once, and I like that.

If I love a song I hope to find a way to get other people to love it too.

I had no desire to become a singer until I heard Billie Holiday. The first time I heard her on a record, it was a revelation. She sounded like a woman singing about herself.

If you sing honestly and sincerely to kids, they will respond with all their hearts.

Be perceptive.Be progressive.Be proactive.Be productive.

Scare the hell out of the American people.

I don't see you making a movie about Bob Arum.

I would advise all youths aspiring to athletic fame or a professional career to practice clean living, fair play and good sportsmanship.

Leadership is elusive and enigmatic, just as it is enlightening and empowering. It is a bright light among human energies that sometimes, by its very intensity, casts a long and dark shadow.

The grandeur of a philosophy does not certify its truth.

Until the Chinese decide to compete fairly it will be up to us to do what we can to further protect our manufacturing base, and ensure we keep the good paying jobs we already have.

I am an emotional plagiarist, stealing other people's pain, subsuming it into my own until I can't remember whose it is any more.

He who has laughter on his side has no need of proof.

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken