I also met, early on Ella Fitzgerald. Her songbooks are some of the most amazing bodies of work.

When you do interviews, you have to talk about yourself - and I like to find out about other people. I am so familiar with everything that I do. Ive said it over and over again. I think it is boring.

And fortunately, I haven't had any problem with my voice. I've been able to sing at a level of consistency that the people are expecting.

I'm just one of the lucky people. I have no other reason for my longevity.

I really, really enjoy music and that's why I do what I do.

Her desire for fame is like her hair. It keeps getting bigger. [on Diana Ross

My favorite singer to this day is Nat King Cole. I've tried to emulate his phrasing. It is so absolutely beautiful to listen to his lovely voice.

I don't feel old, except in the morning once in a while, when I can't turn over properly and say, "What's that? When did that happen?" Our brain doesn't accept that. We're geared to last.

But I am very grateful for my success, and with success, of course, comes a whole lot of celebrity.

Let's love, press your lips to mine. Let's kiss, for that thrill divine.

In other words, the celebrity gets out of hand, and if youre not careful, you will forget what you are about - and that is you are about making music that people want to hear.

A loyal servant does not think of things outside of his control.

When a man falls on his knees and stretches his hands heavenward, he is doing the most natural thing in the world.

Evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.

My commitment is not to consistency but to the Truth.

I love the fact that this art might somehow affect the way people see, and thus open a window on the world.

I don't know about you, but I like to fall in love on Mondays. This way if things go south right away you still have the weekend.

We have this wonderful language and we don't appreciate it. That's old-fashioned me, but when I went to school, everyone had elocution lessons, not to sound posh but so you could be understood.

One must steer, not talk.

I believe there's a landscape that exists underneath everything that we can see in present-day stuff. And I think that makes life kind of a detective story.

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.