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" I think there are three kinds of songs; it's only my theory: psychological, emotional, and spiritual. When you write psychologically or intellectually, you have a tune in your mind, and you re-write it. It's an intellectual approach. The emotional is my favorite because it comes from my kishkas; it comes from my soul. "

Neil Sedaka

Mind

Soul

Spiritual

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" I actually started as a concert pianist. I had a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music. "

" There have been 700 or 800 songs I've written over the last 60 years, as I went through different periods of writing. I listen and marvel at how different they are and how they still stand up. They are very well done, if I must say so. "

" I tend to be on the quiet side. I think I would have been bigger if I had a big mouth. "

" I love kids. I think I'm a child at heart. "

" I remember Pavarotti telling me, 'Oh, Neil, after seventy, the voice is going to go.' But I've been lucky. You almost have to learn how to sing all over again. You use your diaphragm more. You have to choose the notes and pace yourself. "

" I still play my old vinyl LPs - I like the scratches - and I miss browsing in record shops, because they held great nostalgia for me. "

Neil Sedaka

Play

Great

" The Apollo Theatre was a difficult audience, and if they didn't like you, they would let you know. Luckily, they liked me. "

Neil Sedaka

Audience

" I could have been bigger, but I wasn't controversial enough. I didn't do drugs or wreck rooms. There were no dramas in my private life. "

" My teachers said, 'Always keep a Beethoven sonata under your fingers.' I always have. I still play chamber music, and I always play classical. "

" Between 1958 and 1963, I sold about 40 million records - to the shock of my mother and father because I was always playing Beethoven. But I bought my mother a mink stole. She was very happy, and she said, 'I think this is better than Beethoven.' "

" Being a New Yorker, I used to dance to Latin music. There was a place called the Palladium on Broadway. And Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez used to play. So I still have that in my blood. "

" These are some of my awards - an Ivor Novello, a Variety Club Silver Heart, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. I also have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame and a street named after me in Brooklyn where I used to live. "

" I rode on a plane a couple years ago with Snow Patrol and didn't know who the hell they were. They said they were big fans of mine and were playing Madison Square Garden. And they let me listen to one of their records on their iPod. I started to weep. "

" Music is so much a part of me: my parents told me that when I was an infant, I wouldn't eat unless the radio was playing music. "

" Tra-la-las and doo-be-do's became a Neil Sedaka trademark. I was the king of the tra-la-las and doo-be-do's in the '50s and '60s. But then when I re-recorded 'Breaking Up,' I started with a verse instead of the doo-be-do's! "

" I admire Gaga. She's very talented and wise, that girl. "

" Howie Greenfield and I started writing music when I was 13 and he was 16. We lived in the same building. "

" You have to learn how to sing from your diaphragm, and you don't become a great performer overnight. It takes a while. The more you do it, the better you are. "

Neil Sedaka

Become

You

" I think I was put on earth to sing and play music. "

" I did have my beginnings in doo-wop music; I had a group called the Tokens in Brooklyn. They went on, of course, to do 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' and a lot of other great things. I went on as a soloist. But I still love doo-wop music. "

" Between 1963 and 1975, I worked very little. The Beatles had come to New York and changed music - all the solo singers were out of work. "

" I've always enjoyed seeing the world through the eyes of my grandchildren. "

" People seem to think of me as a goody-goody who never curses, but I can be very nasty if I'm pushed. Cross me too many times, and I'll never talk to you again. "

Neil Sedaka

Think

People

" Family has always been very important to my life. Even though I make my living as an artist, my creativity is merely a fantasy world. Having a close family has been a stabilizing rock for me. "

" I was driving my 1959 Chevy Impala down King's Highway in Brooklyn with the top down, and I heard 'Oh! Carol' on three stations at the same time while I was channel surfing. I knew then that I made it. "

" The spiritual writing of the song is where you're chosen as a vehicle, and it comes from something up above. You don't move; it writes itself. It's very spooky, but that's happened to me just a few times. "

Neil Sedaka

Spiritual

Writing

" 'Love Will Keep Us Together' was a combination of three different singing styles - Al Green, the Beach Boys, and Diana Ross. I loved all these people, and I put their singing styles together and wrote that tune. "

" Andy Warhol was a good friend of mine. We used to go to the Studio 54 nightclub together with the likes of Liza Minnelli, and we'd dance through the night. "

" The hymn 'Amazing Grace' is so inspirational - I wish I'd written it. "

" I was one of the first American rock n' rollers in the '50s to go to many foreign countries. It's a wonderful thing to go out and spread joy and love rather than hate. "