This is the best biography by me I have ever read.

Music was my joy, my home, the one place I felt happy and secure.

I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me.

I knew nothing of the life of a real musician, of course, but somehow I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.

When my parents first arrived there, North Dakota had just been admitted to the Union, and the country was still wild and harsh.

Night after night I could feel the chills go up and down my spine, they played so well.

To be granted some kind of usable talent and to be able to use it to the fullest extent of which you are capable - this, to me, is a kind of joy that is almost unequaled.