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.

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

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

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.

On the stage of the Italian Terrace Room in the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1938 ... the place where Champagne Music was born.

Boys, if you don't stick together, how do you expect me to follow you-ah?

I expected to be a farmer like my father and brothers. Life seemed pleasant and orderly.