Tony Bennett Quotes

I think if you have a passion for what you do then there are no limitations on how long or how much you can accomplish.

I have an awful lot to learn. My dream is to get better and better as I get older.

I've taken stuff from people, too. You know though, if you steal from one person, you're just a thief. But if you steal from everyone, that's research.

If you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life.

Someday, when I'm awfully low, and the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you, and the way you look tonight.

To work is to feel alive.

"Benedetto" means the "blessed one" and I feel that I have truly been blessed.

When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.

My goal as a creative person is to express truth and beauty in whatever I do

I can't ask for more out of life, and the more I learn, the less I know.

The bottom line of any country is: what did we contribute to the world? We contributed Louis Armstrong.

I knew very early that somehow I would sing and draw and paint my whole life.

You can't teach it [jazz singing]. There's nobody who can teach you how to sing jazz. Either you know how to sing jazz, or you don't.

I consider myself a method singer, not a method actor. I applied method acting to singing.

I don't look down to an audience. I look up to them. They respond to quality.

I think in all of the arts there are just certain people that have a gift. I think it's a certain spirituality, it's a God-given gift that just certain individuals have.

It's really quite a situation. It's ridiculous. I make $200,000, $300,000 a night. For years I was working little dives, and if I got $700 a week, I'd say, "Wow, I'm really cooking.

If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.

Don't try to be just like some other singer hitting it big - find your own style and be honest in your performances. And never underestimate your audience.

I try to tell the story about the song with the believability that I've lived it myself and I understand what it's all about.

Just give a drum roll, announce my name & I come out & sing. I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.

I have a very strong passion to sing and paint. I'm really a student.

No-one will ever sound as good as Judy Garland as far as I am concerned.

I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.

I've been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've been sold out all over the world.

I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.

There's always something every night that I learn from reacting to what the audience is reacting to. You learn what to leave out, what to put in, if you need a little more comedy or more drama.

I always feel the audience is my best teacher.

Every city I go to is an opportunity to paint, whether it's Omaha or Hawaii.

I have to say I owe my career to the master composers of the Great American Songbook who have written such high-quality songs - the best popular music ever composed.

More than anybody else I’d like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.

Sometimes the teacher would tell me that if you're singing a love song and you just don't feel it with a person or something you've experienced, just think of a dog or cat that you love.

It helps to know there is going to be continuity.

I don't disrespect the audience. I only sing very well-written, intelligent songs.

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.

What I really search for is something that I really love hearing, something that's my own private game: If I find a song I really like, I try to do a definitive version.

I have been very fortunate to have been able to make a living from what I love to do best - performing and singing for people.

Luckily for his audiences, Bennett doesn't tire of singing I Left My Heart. ... that song made me a world citizen. And when I do it, it always feels like the first time.

I plan to do my next two albums with Lady Gaga . She is quite a talent.

That song helped make me a world citizen. It allowed me to live, work and sing in any city on the globe. It changed my whole life.

Sinatra invited me once to his birthday party in L.A. I was young, and I felt great about it. But when I got there, the Rat Pack were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off.

The British House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.