People are stubborn about what they perceive to be the right thing or the wrong thing, and it takes a long time to filter this human condition. There's a waiting period until people catch up. But if you have patience - which it takes when someone thinks differently from you - everybody always catches up. That patience is a wonderful virtue.

I'm still going strong. I have been very blessed and still am. I love singing. Obviously, at my age, I don't tour with as many dates throughout the year as I did in the past. But I do this to honor my father who was also a singer. I still miss him and his encouragement.

I love the whole aspect of music, especially the singing; I never get tired of finding new songs to sing and sing them in a way that's interesting for the public.

Christmas is never going to go away, and it's always going to be there. And there's always room for one more Christmas song, I think.

I'd rather starve than not have what I really want to eat. I'm good at preparation.

I thought I sounded a little like Eartha Kitt for a long time, and I didn't like it.

I got an invitation to go to the Olympic trials. And in the same week, I got a telegram from a... big executive at Columbia Records.

I had stage fright for years and years, and I could hear it in my singing. But since I've done it so often for so many years, you'd think that I'd relax a little bit, and I think that I have.

I think most people don't understand: I have nothing to do with that. I just open my mouth, and it comes out that way.