May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.

I get an audience personally involved in a song - because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately: I can't help myself. If the song is a lament at the loss of love, I get an ache in my gut. I feel the loss myself and I cry out the loneliness, the hurt and the pain that I feel.

As you may know, I have many good friends in the press who, unfortunately, have thus far refused to identify themselves and go public.

I lived in a plenty tough neighborhood. When somebody called me a 'dirty little Guinea', there was only one thing to do-break his head. When I got older, I realized that you shouldn't do it that way. I realized that you've got to do it through education. Children are not to blame. It is the parents. How can a child know whether his playmate is an Italian, a Jew or Irish, unless the parents have discussed it in the privacy of their homes.

Here's to the confusion of our enemies!

Stay alive, stay active, and get as much practice as you can.

Dare to wear the foolish clown face.