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

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

" I have written for, very fortunately, some great singers from Frank Sinatra to Elvis Presley. "

" I take care of my voice. I don't go to loud discos where I have to shout; I don't have iced drinks. "

" 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 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. "

" 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. "

" I knew I had a remarkable voice, but I was embarrassed because it was so high. But when I sang at my bar mitzvah, the rabbi was in tears. He said to my parents, 'He must become a cantor in the synagogue,' but my mother said, 'No, he's going to be a concert pianist.' "

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

" 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. "

" I am very proud of being Jewish. "

" 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 have a Baldwin in my L.A. apartment, a Steinway in my New York apartment, and a Kawai plexiglass grand piano in storage for shows. I still play for two or three hours every day. "

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

" As far as I'm concerned, all politicians are fake people. "

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

" My music is nostalgic. The early Neil Sedaka songs are always catchy and very singable. "

" I was from very poor people: 11 of us in a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. I wanted the large houses, the cars, jets, and yacht. "

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

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

" I was a teenage idol, but not the one that the girls would put up on their walls, like Fabian and Frankie Avalon. I was more cerebral, like a Roy Orbison or a Buddy Holly. I was one of the few who could write songs. "

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

" '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. "

" 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. "

" Much of my music is inspired by what I heard at picnics and weddings and bar mitzvahs. "

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

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

" I didn't want to be a rock and roller. I wanted to be a Bobby Darin because he was the epitome of the performer, the sophisticated. "

" 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 like Maroon 5, Cold Play. Snow Patrol from Ireland is very good. Adele is wonderful. I enjoy a new singer named Rumer. I don't care for rap or hip-hop. "

" 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. "