Young singers are much better educated musically, much better informed, through discs and videos, than I was.

But enough joking. I am singing. This is all my life.

I hope I have given back half the joy music has given me.

The atmosphere of the theater is my oxygen.

Don't you think it astonishing that, at 58, I am still working at improving my career?

I was married at 16, a father at 17 and divorced at 18.

The public made me and then encouraged me for many years, and my future even now depends upon it.