When I was young, I used to have successes with women because I was young. Now I have successes with women because I am old. Middle age was the hardest part.

Don't tell me how talented you are. Tell me how hard you work.

To be alive, to able to see, to walk...it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.

I'm a free person; I feel terribly free. They could put me in chains and I still would be free because my thoughts would be mine - and that's all I want to have.

Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.

At every concert I leave a lot to the moment. I must have the unexpected, the unforeseen. I want to risk, to dare. I want to be surprised by what comes out. I want to enjoy it more than the audience. That way the music can bloom anew. It's like making love. The act is always the same, but each time it's different.

We only begin to live life when we learn to accept it on its own terms.