I was born in Montreal and came from a lower-middle-class family.

If somebody asks me to recommend a young, good singer, I always do.

It makes one a better person to have had hardships and to have overcome hardships and not to blame anybody else for your mistakes.

Singing beautiful melodies is one thing, but to deliver the text so that the people understand it, even in a foreign language, has to be worked at very hard.

I have three grandchildren and am hoping for 20.

I have been all over the world. I have met some wonderful people, lots of them very simple, whom nobody will ever hear about, but who have been fabulous to me.

Another turn in my life happened when I took on the Canada Council.