I can make a song up about anything: garbage, the weather, things in the news.

I'm not one of those people who says, 'I never read reviews,' because I don't believe those people.

I have always thought of music as a highway with many lanes.

I still have great faith in what is good and right in all of us.

I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive.

My whole thing is not just to play music for people, but to make them part of the evening.

There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT tests

You mustn't underestimate an audience's intelligence.

The biggest thrill you can have is to tell people one of your songs, and have them be able to hum it.

From the time I could play the piano, I remember trying to write tunes. They were in my head, and I would just sit down and start noodling. Next thing I knew, I had written a melody.

My show business career doesn't mean I can't write a symphony. It just means I was never asked to write one.

My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible.All are of no value unless they are followed by action.

If you're stuck in a puddle, it means there's higher ground all around you, you just have to step onto it.

Old stories sometimes slid out of her like lamp oil or light, stories containing details oblique and nearly incomprehensible to me or to anyone who has never known that world.

I never go for the stereotypically good-looking guy. Maybe it's unfair, but if I see a good-looking guy, inside I'm like, 'What does he have to offer?'

Knowledge, like religion, must be experienced in order to be known.

The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold.

Be the most ethical, the most responsible, the most authentic you can be with every breath you take, because you are cutting a path into tomorrow that others will follow.

Millions of people are falling out of the middle class into the ranks of the poor.

Reality is negotiable.

We believe deep down that we've lost something precious and are seeking it outside ourselves, never realizing that we are carrying it within us wherever we go.