Quotes

I'm trying to figure out, Chairman of what Board? People come up to me and seriously say: "Well, what are you Chairman of?" And I can't answer them.

I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.

A friend is never an imposition.

[his last words] I'm losing it.

[Talking about Burt Reynolds] He is the one the ladies like to dance with and their husbands like to drink with. He is the larger-than-life actor of our times. He is gifted, talented, naughty and nice.

A fella came up to me the other day with a nice story. He was in a bar somewhere and it was the quiet time of the night. Everybody's staring down at the sauce and one of my saloon songs comes on the jukebox, "One for My Baby", or something like that. After a while, a drunk at the end of the bar looks up and says, jerking his thumb toward the jukebox, "I wonder who he listens to?"

[when Dean Martin walked out on The Together Again Tour] You can't put a gun to his head. He just didn't want to do it.

Nothing anybody's said or written about me ever bothers me, except when it does.

[after the deaths of Sammy Davis Jr., Ava Gardner, Jilly Rizzo and Dean Martin] I'm next. I ain't scared, either. Everybody I ever knew is already over there.

[on Elvis Presley in 1957] Sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons; and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd - in plain fact, dirty - lyrics it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the Earth. This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore. His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac . . . it fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.

[on Ava Gardner] I love her, and God damn me for it.

You better get busy living, because dying's a pain in the ass.

[on Elvis Presley's death in 1977] There have been many accolades uttered about his talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree to wholeheartedly, I shall miss him dearly as a friend.

There are moments when it's too quiet. Particularly late at night or early in the mornings. That's when you know there's something lacking in your life. You just know.

Recording with Billy May is like having a bucket of cold water thrown into your face. Nelson Riddle will come to a session with all the arrangements carefully and neatly worked out beforehand. With Billy you sometimes don't get copies of the next number until you've finished the one before. Billy and Nelson both work best under pressure. Billy May is always driving while Nelson has more depth, and with Gordon Jenkins, it's just plain beautiful and simple.

[on Marlon Brando] He is the most overrated actor in the world.

No man's lifetime of work has better expressed the land of the free and the home of the brave. No man's lifetime of work has given proof to the world that our flag is still there. John Wayne is in truth a star-spangled man whom so proudly we hail.

For over half a century, Mr. Wayne [John Wayne] has served honorably as America's symbol to the world of the highest morals and prudent standards of our society.

[on Don Rickles] I like him. But that's because I have no taste.

In Hoboken, when I was a kid, I lived in a plenty tough neighborhood. When somebody called me a "dirty little pig," there was only one thing to do: break his head. When I got older, I realized you shouldn't do it [get even] that way. I realized you've got to do it through education . . . maybe with a few exceptions.

[1965] For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He's the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.

I detest bad manners. If people are polite, I am. They shouldn't try to get away with not being polite to me.

I'm a performer. I'm better in the first take.

Don't tell me. Suggest. But don't tell me.

[on the resignation of US President Richard Nixon, Aug. 9, 1974] Any man can make a mistake.

[on friend Peggy Lee] Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists; her regal presence is pure elegance and charm.

A well balanced girl is the one who has an empty head and a full sweater.

That guy Heston has to watch it. If he's not careful, he'll get actors a good name. - On Charlton Heston

[1978, in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas] I hate this song ['My Way']--you sing it for eight years, you would hate it too!

[on Rat Pack buddy Sammy Davis Jr.] He goes to the refrigerator for a snack, opens the door, and when that light hits him, he does 45 minutes of his act!

Rock 'n roll smells phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiteration and sly, lewd, in plain fact, dirty lyrics .. manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth.

[to Sam Rayburn, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who had greeted him by tugging at his sleeve] Hands off the threads, creep.

(On The Manchurian Candidate (1962)) I've never had to speak on screen before...long, wild speeches.

May you all live to be 100 years old, and may the last voice you hear be mine!

I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family - and I don't think I could ask for anything more than that, actually.

[on Matt Monro] If I had to choose three of the finest male vocalists in the singing business, Matt would be one of them. His pitch was right on the nose; his word enunciations letter perfect; his understanding of a song thorough.

Ella Fitzgerald is the only performer with whom I've ever worked who made me nervous. Because I try to work up to what she does. You know, try to pull myself up to that height, because I believe she is the greatest popular singer in the world, barring none-male or female.

When I'm back on top, I'm back on top in June.