Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.
Whatever else has been said about me personally is unimportant. When I sing, I believe. I’m honest.
People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.
Las Vegas is the only place I know where money really talks – it says, Goodbye.
Bad reviews I’ve gotten never diminished the number of people in my audience; good reviews have never added to the number of people in my audience; be your own critic.
I am a thing of beauty.
The thing that influenced me most was the way Tommy played his trombone. It was my idea to make my voice work in the same way as a trombone or violin-not sounding like them, but “playing” the voice like those instrumentalists.
I’m for whatever gets you through the night.
The cigarettes you light one after another won’t help you forget her.
Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night – be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I think being jilted is one of life’s most painful experiences. It takes a long time to heal a broken heart. It’s happened to all of us and never gets any easier. I understand, however, that playing one of my albums can help.
My greatest teacher was not a vocal coach, not the work of other singers, but the way Tommy Dorsey breathed and phrased on the trombone.
You are the promised kiss of springtime that makes the lonely winter seem long. You are the breathless hush of evening that trembles on the brink of a lovely song.
Most of what has been written about me is one big blur, but I do remember being described in one simple word that I agree with. It was in a piece that tore me apart for my personal behavior, but the writer said that when the music began and I started to sing, I was “honest.”
Card players have a saying: “It’s all right to play if you keep your eyes on the deck” – which is another way of saving, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
It took me a long, long time to learn what I now know, and I don’t want that to die with me.
And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain.
Fresh air makes me throw up. I can’t handle it. I’d rather be around three Denobili cigars blowing in my face all night.
I like intelligent women. When you go out, it shouldn’t be a staring contest.
You better get busy living, because dying’s a pain in the ass.