People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent, and this is what I have devoted my life to.

The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other.

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

You don't need any brains to listen to music.

As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.

Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not?

If your arteries are good, eat more ice cream. If they are bad, drink more red wine. Proceed thusly.

World peace, true love, and happily-ever-afters amount to wasted wishes, failed endeavors, and most precious dreams.

I was suddenly really famous, and I didn't know how to cope. I didn't know myself well enough as a person, number one, and as an actor, number two. I wanted to escape.

There's no way that a clear mind can live an unhappy life.

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

In a country with millions of people & cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in a while.

Being in love is better than being in jail, a dentist's chair, or a holding pattern over Philadelphia, but not if he doesn't love you back.

Heaven is where God dwells. It is a specific place; a place of unparalleled tranquility and beauty. It includes the new heaven and new earth.

I think Ray Charles did as much as anybody when he did his country music album. Ray Charles broke down borders and showed the similarities between country music and R&B.

I am a compulsive and concise shopper.