When you’re all singing together, it brings things together. I know the songs that my grandfather and my father sang.

Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.

I love to sing and I really love to write, but in terms of being onstage, I’m not that comfortable, which I think is sort of clear.

As a father and now a grandfather to three wonderful grandchildren, I know how magical the first year of a child’s life is but also how much hard work it takes. Being able to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones is absolutely vital, especially early on.

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

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

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.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families – second families, perhaps I should say.

What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

I think love is one of the purest things you can sing about. One of the best things you can sing about.

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.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

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

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

Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

As an adolescent, I was painfully shy, withdrawn.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.

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!‘

People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets, trying to be loved. You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk?

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

My roots are in Paris, and I will not pull them up.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

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

A chorus is not easy.

I always said that I wouldn’t use a teleprompter, and if I start to sing real flat, I’ll hang it up.

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.

We believed in our idea – a family park where parents and children could have fun- together.

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

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

Sometimes I wish I had taken the Bob Dylan route and sang songs where my voice would not go out on me every night, so I could have a career if I wanted.

Accident counts for as much in companionship as in marriage.

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

In a long meter hymn, a singer – they call it ‚lays out a line.‘ And then the whole church joins in in repeating that line. And they form a wall of harmony so tight, you can’t wedge a pin between it.

I don’t travel with them, but they can’t be missing in my home. There have to always be dominoes… I used to play with my family – dad, my grandpa, my uncles.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

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

Aside from singing, I’m also a dancer. I’ve been dancing since I was 8.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

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.

In case you’re wondering whether I lip synch, the answer is no… people think so because I sound so good.

Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

Friendship increases in visiting friends, but in visiting them seldom.

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’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.

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

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Occasionally, some brother sings very earnestly through his nose, often disturbing those around him, but it does not matter how the voice sounds to the ears of man. What is important is how the heart sounds to the ears of God.

I love the natural world – it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

I was always singing but didn’t plan on pursuing it seriously. When I got to New York City when I was 18, I started playing in clubs in Brooklyn – I have good friends and devoted fans on the underground scene, but we were playing for each other at that point – and that was it.

The Iraqis have become invested in their nationhood.

I just kept touring and touring until it became second nature to go onstage, perform, and sing.

Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

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.

It doesn’t sound too good to say I am the son of a landowner, so let us rather say I am the grandson of exploited Galician peasants.

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.

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

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