My goal as a creative person is to express truth and beauty in whatever I do

If you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life.

Every city I go to is an opportunity to paint, whether it's Omaha or Hawaii.

Sometimes the teacher would tell me that if you're singing a love song and you just don't feel it with a person or something you've experienced, just think of a dog or cat that you love.

The young people look great on television. They’re youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven’t got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so.

The bottom line of any country is: what did we contribute to the world? We contributed Louis Armstrong.

I am very much inspired by the great masters of entertainment: Bob Hope, George Burns, Jimmy Durante - who never thought about retiring. When people ask me if I plan to retire, I say, "Retire to what? I am doing what I love best right now!"