That song helped make me a world citizen. It allowed me to live, work and sing in any city on the globe. It changed my whole life.

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'd like to have every gentleman and lady in this room commit themselves to get our government to legalize drugs. So they have to get it through a doctor, not just some gangsters who sell it under the table. Let's legalize drugs like they did in Amsterdam. No one's hiding or sneaking around corners to get it. They go to a doctor to get it.

I knew very early that somehow I would sing and draw and paint my whole life.

Just give a drum roll, announce my name & I come out & sing. I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.

I don't disrespect the audience. I only sing very well-written, intelligent songs.

I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.