Ever since I was a kid, this was all I wanted to do. I’ve wanted to do music. I wanted to sing. It’s all I know.

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

I’m first and foremost a writer. I followed my personal legend, my childhood dream of becoming a writer, but I can’t say why I’m one.

Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument – learning to do your craft – that’s the most important thing! It’s not about what goes on in a computer!

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

I thought that I wrote songs and wrote music, and that was sort of what I thought I was best at doing. And because nobody else was ever doing my songs, I felt – you know, I had to go out and do them.

All I have to say is basically if performing, singing, acting, and dancing is what you want to do, then you just have to do it – no matter where it is.

I began singing in dive bars and really small clubs. I dragged my piano down the stairs, and I went down the street with my keyboard, and I would go to every different dive bar that I could get to agree to let me play. I’d call and pretend I was Lady Gaga’s manager.

I believe in singing to such an extent that, if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing becomes a central part of the daily routine. I believe it builds character and, more than anything else, encourages a taste for cooperation with others.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

When you’re singing you can hear the echo of people in the audience singing every single word with you, and that was that big dream that I had for myself. It’s happening.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

I won’t be satisfied until people want to hear me sing without looking at me. Of course, that doesn’t mean I want them to stop looking.

As an adolescent, I was painfully shy, withdrawn. I didn’t really have the nerve to sing my songs on stage, and nobody else was doing them. I decided to do them in disguise so that I didn’t have to actually go through the humiliation of going on stage and being myself.

All of my brothers and sisters are very talented. They all sang all right.

I have been singing randomly, obsessively, obnoxiously for as long as I can remember.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

I’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.

I’m always amazed by the people who work on stage who sing night after night, day after day, week in week out.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

I sing seriously to my mom on the phone. To put her to sleep, I have to sing ‚Maria‘ from West Side Story. When I hear her snoring, I hang up.

I signed up to be a musician, I want to perform, I want to sing.

Some artists just ruin their voices because they don’t know any better.

My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young.

Many people have an intense feeling about what they’re best at. Too often, they’re driven away from it by other people.

If you play an instrument, it makes you a better singer. The more you play, the better you sing, the more you sing, the better you play.

It seemed like a very small possibility for me to become an artist. I didn’t have the need to be on the stage; I didn’t feel the need to be heard. I just needed to write.

Sitting on a bedroom floor crying is something that makes you feel really alone. If someone’s singing about that feeling, you feel bonded to that person. That’s the only way I can find an explanation for why 55,000 people would want to come see me sing.

I know I’m talented, but I wasn’t put here to sing. I was put here to be a wife and a mom and look after my family. I love what I do, but it’s not where it begins and ends.

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

Who’s to say what’s a good voice and not a good voice?

If I heard someone else singing like me, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I used to sing songs and write with my uncle, Bill Owens.

I grew up listening to the Police, I grew up performing in bars, singing Police songs.

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

Every day, my mom and I would watch a different Judy Garland VHS. I love how she tells a story when she sings. It was just about her voice and the words she was singing – no strings attached or silly hair or costumes, just a woman singing her heart out. I feel like that doesn’t happen that much anymore.

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.

I sang a song at my sister’s wedding. My mother forced me into that, too. But that one felt all right.

I could care less about the particular. I like to make music.

‚Nothin‘ on You‘ by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I’d been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

My mother is a singer, my sisters all sing, my uncles are incredible singers and guitar players, so it’s just kind of been like my habitat.

You aren’t normal if you sing to people. You aren’t a normal person. It’s nerve-racking.

I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

I always use Michael as, first and foremost, a vocal inspiration, and ‚Off the Wall‘ was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

I think one of my pursuits over the years is trying to answer the question of, ‚What else can you do with a voice other than stand in front of a microphone and sing?‘

I remember when the candle shop burned down. Everyone stood around singing ‚Happy Birthday.‘

People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

Being part of a community with a church at its centre and singin‘ hymns is a great thing to do.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.

I believe in singing.

An operatic voice is like no other.

I really learned to sing in church, I think, really with emotion.

I’ve conducted the Boston Pops! Imagine that! Me! Maya Angelou! I’ve sang and danced at La Scala!

I’ve been singing Shakira songs in front of my bathroom mirror into my hairbrush forever. It’s like a daily routine.

Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness.

I love singing. I love it, and it doesn’t feel like a chore. It’s an expression.

A chorus is not easy.