When I look out at the people and they look at me and they're smiling, then I know that I'm loved. That is the time when I have no worries, no problems.

My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.

Long as I was riding in a big Cadillac and dressed nice and had plenty of food, that's all I cared about.

The two things you can't fake are good food and good music

All the things I used to like - cookies, ice cream, gumbo - I don't like anymore.

What happens is, when I perform, I'm somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.

At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over and life is like a song.

I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.

A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

When I sing for myself, I probably sing for anyone who has any kind of hurt, any kind of bad feelings, good feelings, ups and downs, highs and lows, that kind of thing.

I want a Sunday kind of love A love to last past Saturday night And I’d like to know it’s more than love at first sight

Never Fall In Love !! Just Rise In Love !!

Jeremias, my soul mate, I will forever love you.

Faith consists not in ignorance but in knowledge and that not only of God but also of the divine will.

Dust into dust and under dust to lie Sans wine sans song sans singer and - sans end.

I hate the cliche of 'just have fun, ' but what I've seen in today's sports, especially with parents, is they put so much pressure on the kids.

Your retirement is an opportunity to live out your dreams and take care of your family. Don’t leave it to chance.

My father read 'The New York Times,' my mother did secretarial work, we had a dog, we had a garden, I had a brother.

History is still in large measure poetry to me.

We are against the beauty and fashion fascist regime that gets hyped in America and all over the world. "The Beautiful People" is NOT against people who style themselves in whichever way.

I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time.