Whenever a songwriter writes a big hit, then the next 20 songs they write - no matter how bad they are - get recorded.

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn't have the other $20,000. I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.

I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

There's been so much bad blood between the Kurds and the Turks.

It is a great life, this life of music.

The all-time greatest Atlantic group - The Drifters

The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution. Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.