What I really search for is something that I really love hearing, something that's my own private game: If I find a song I really like, I try to do a definitive version.

When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.

I don't look down to an audience. I look up to them. They respond to quality.

I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.

I have to say I owe my career to the master composers of the Great American Songbook who have written such high-quality songs - the best popular music ever composed.

I attended the High School of Industrial Arts and studied with many great artists as painting is something that you never stop learning about. Actually, in high school there was a time that I was thinking about just concentrating on painting and I asked my music teacher, Mr. Sondberg, for advice and he encouraged me to stick with the music as well. So all my life I have been singing and painting.

I've taken stuff from people, too. You know though, if you steal from one person, you're just a thief. But if you steal from everyone, that's research.