If you sing honestly and sincerely to kids, they will respond with all their hearts.

It may be that my most helpful contributions to music aren't my compact discs but my articles about other great singers of the past for American Heritage magazine.

I'm very happy to have a small, long, career instead of one big hit and then oblivion.

If I love a song I hope to find a way to get other people to love it too.

Thank God for beautiful songs about feeling despair when you yourself are in despair. They really get us through.

I had no desire to become a singer until I heard Billie Holiday. The first time I heard her on a record, it was a revelation. She sounded like a woman singing about herself.

I have complete artistic control, and I just do my best album every time and trust it to fate.