I was honoured when they asked me to appear at the president’s birthday rally in Madison Square Garden. There was like a hush over the whole place when I came on to sing ‚Happy Birthday,‘ like if I had been wearing a slip, I would have thought it was showing or something. I thought, ‚Oh, my gosh, what if no sound comes out!‘

The American people are bigger than any president. I suppose I have faith in my country and in what it is founded on and the values we hold dear.

I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

‚Leading man‘ just means people want to see you and assume that you can hold a film, carry a movie.

Oh yes. I’m an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.

You’ve all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character – one of the finest presidents we have ever had.

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.

The beauty of me being on stage is I have a voice.

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.

One of the finest statesmen of the present time is also a first-class scout, and that is Mr. Roosevelt, the late President of the United States of America.

I’m sure everyone knows now that only a few have performed in Madison Square Garden. That list is so small. Now I’m on that list. I’m a part of a very small group, which is unbelievable. You relish in that moment for a second.

One of the reasons I connect to the Super Bowl is that I approach my shows like an athlete.

Endorsements are a reward for good performance on the field, and the commitments made after signing them need to be done.

I think I’d be a better president because I was in combat.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

Whatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.

The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.

In my opinion, the only way to conquer stage fright is to get up on stage and play. Every time you play another show, it gets better and better.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

I get nervous when I don’t get nervous. If I’m nervous I know I’m going to have a good show.

Stand-up is hard.

Actors know what actors are insecure about – and they’re all insecure.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

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

The people who were honored in the Bible were the false prophets. It was the ones we call the prophets who were jailed and driven into the desert.

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

‚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.

Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people.

I still get very scared when I step in front of a live audience.

I play a nobody in Japan.

I had a soft-spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

If you watch any good player, they’re using different parts of their body and working with instruments that respond to those movements. They’re moving in many dimensions at once.

There is a need for aloneness, which I don’t think most people realise for an actor. It’s almost having certain kinds of secrets for yourself that you’ll let the whole world in on only for a moment, when you’re acting. But everybody is always tugging at you. They’d all like sort of a chunk of you.

I don’t have a vast longing for the stage.

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.

The honor of a nation is its life.

The other day the President said, I know you’ve had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. He paused, then said, would you like a puppy?

Becoming a ‚Sir‘ is slightly uncomfortable at first, although it is a considerable honor. It is amazing how quickly you become accustomed to it.

No duty the Executive had to perform was so trying as to put the right man in the right place.

You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.

When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community. That’s one of the great feelings – to stop being me for a little while and to become us. That way lies empathy, the great social virtue.

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.

My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise.

Do I think faith will be an important part of being a good president? Yes, I do.

There are some members of the House leadership whose only mission in life is to demonize the president.

I’d love to do a musical. I’ve been known to have a good step or two. I’m half Samoan, you know, and part of our culture is singing and dancing daily.

Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

How can we help President Obama?

I love eating chocolate cake and ice cream after a show. I almost justify it in my mind as, ‚You were a good boy onstage and you did your show, so now you can have some cake and ice cream.‘

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

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

Whoever won’t fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there.