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" I grew up in an era where the record companies just sold records to everybody, and the whole family bought songs. Today, record companies are failing because they are putting their accent just on the young, and I think that's rather silly. "

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" Presley is country music, white music. Jazz is black music - it was invented by the blacks in New Orleans. And I'm really a jazz singer. I was impressed with Elvis - he was the handsomest guy I ever met in my life, and a very nice person, too. But the music doesn't impress me. "

Tony Bennett

Life

My Life

" I respected Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Those were my heroes, and they were 10 years older than I was. "

" My whole life has been singing and painting. I just do those two things. "

" The high point for me in my career was when Sinatra called me his favourite performer in the Fifties. And I've been sold out ever since. "

Tony Bennett

Out

Point

" The whole music world is based on the young, the very young people. "

" Never treat the audience disrespectfully. "

" I'll call it a day when I die. It's a wonderful occupation for me. I've never worked a day in my life. "

" In America, at the beginning of talkies, they pulled Fred Astaire from the theaters and put him on the screen and had all of these great composers write songs for him. They call it the Great American Songbook; I call it the Fred Astaire Songbook because they were written for him. "

" I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing. "

Tony Bennett

Job

Life

" I've been very fortunate. I'm doing what I love, and I'm getting away with it, you know? "

" I study nature, and I realize that no matter how much you learn, you can't top nature. "

" I take care of myself. I work out three times a week. I have a trainer, and we just work out for an hour. "

" For many years, I've always been attached to what they call the Great American Songbook, and Kern was a great leader of that because he had the classical training of Europe. He impressed all the greatest composers, like Cole Porter and Gershwin. They couldn't believe he was writing the songs he was writing. "

" Mercer was very clever. He knew the way Southerners spoke and put that into his lyrics. But in that whole era, you had the best. Harold Arlen was just fantastic. Cole Porter was better than anybody, and Gershwin was Gershwin, y'know. Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. "

" My whole premise has been, right from the beginning, that it would take me a lifetime to learn to explain myself as an artist. As you grow older, you learn what to do and what to leave out. You kind of simplify your work and get the same thing done with fewer strokes. It's pretty interesting to me. "

Tony Bennett

Work

Myself

" I had the greatest time of my life in England for a couple of years, and Robert Farnon made some of the best music I've ever been around. "

" 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. "

" I get up, and boy, I can't wait to paint and study music and keep learning. I just love it. "

" Lady Gaga is the Picasso of the entertainment world. She's very intelligent. "

" If something is good, it's always good. You don't have to change it. "

" Every week, as an 11-year-old kid, I would tune in to what was really the first American Idol-type program, a radio show called 'Major Bowes' Amateur Hour.' The winning group on the evening of September 8, 1935, was called the Hoboken Four, and their spokesman was Frank Sinatra, then aged 19. "

" Fame comes and goes. Longevity is the thing to aim for. "

" Johnny Mercer started Capitol Records, and he brought in Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Nat King Cole. He just let them sing whatever they wanted, and it became the best record company in America. "

" I have grown to appreciate the power of believing in myself and of always having faith in myself. I rarely look back; instead, I always look forward. There is so much of life that we miss when we wallow in regret. "

" I've never worked a day in my life. "

" 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. "

" I'll never retire. "

Tony Bennett

Retire

Never

" Sinatra invited me once to his birthday party in L.A. I was young, and I felt great about it. But when I got there, the Rat Pack were all in the kitchen laughing their heads off. "

Tony Bennett

Great

Birthday

" I still feel that I can get better somehow. And I search for it all of the time. "

Tony Bennett

I Can

Feel

" I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, and I still can't believe that the handsomest man in the world, Cary Grant, and the greatest performer in the world, Fred Astaire, and Johnny Carson, one after another - they were all in my home at different times. I celebrated my 50th birthday with them. Unforgettable. "