And, because there was an honesty about all that was going on. It connected with the people in the street.

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.

Life is wasted on the living.

Through the eyes of the brave, the future makes past tense perfect sense.

There's a whole world all around more interesting, wonderful, terrifying, mysterious, amazing than any novel ever written. Pay attention. Take a chance. Dare life.

Then the hard, dry Spaniards came exploring through, greedy and realistic, and their greed was for gold or God. They collected souls as they collected jewels.

Life is better than death I believe if only because it is less boring and because it has fresh peaches in it.

The journey that I have undertaken, meeting people from all walks of life and learning from them, has been my biggest achievement.

Death is a companion for all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we're aware of it or not, and it's not necessarily a terrible thing.

You long for success? Start at the bottom; dig down.

I used to be absolutely addicted to the gym and I do still love it.

Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.