I never even visualized for a second doing what I'm doing.

When I got involved with The Five Crowns who later became The Drifters, and we got this hit record, I still was looking at this as kind of a fun thing.

When the night has come and the land is dark and the moon is the only light we see. No, I won't be afraid, no, I won't be afraid, just as long as you stand, stand by me.

Those things don't happen today. I feel sorry for the kids in the industry today. They have on sunglasses, eat caviar in jet planes, but they'll never know the true feeling that we did.

If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall. Or the mountain should crumble to the sea. I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear, just as long as you stand by me.

I always felt I never chose music, it chose me.

I still perform it in all my shows. I'll do it as long as I'm breathing. I'm so proud it has stood the test of time.

You're writing it is how you feel. And when you're finished you put your signature on it and you mail it off and that's it. And that's how "Stand By Me" was really.

I do like what Alicia Keys and John Legend are doing. With their music, you keep your clothes on.

I still think my whole career was accidental. I didn't pursue it. I feel like I'm cheating sometimes.

It doesn't take me long to write songs.

Happiness is not in our circumstances but in ourselves. It is not something we see like a rainbow or feel like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.

the sun is as dispassionate as the hand of a man who greets you with his mind on other things.

I was always interested in medicine and I was actually a pre-med major.

My church accepts all denominations - fivers, tenners, twenties.

Sometimes I have a feeling that I just can't get rid of. Sometimes there's an experience that I want to write about that I have to get off my chest. Sometimes there are some words that appeal to you.

The bottom line is we must get off our duff and make an effort to succeed. Trust me on this, when you see someone successful in any of the arts they have been willing to make an extra effort.

Meaning is not in things but in between them.

Inner peace is found by facing life squarely, solving its problems, and delving as far beneath its surface as possible to discover its verities and realities.

Mankind has the genius to bring all the world together and the ignorance to fight upon arrival.