I still feel that I can get better somehow. And I search for it all of the time.
— Tony Bennett
It sounds so simple, but if you just be yourself, you're different than anyone else.
Every day feels like just starting out because I still have so much more to learn.
More than anybody else I'd like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.
I've been so fortunate because I never really had ups and downs as far as my career. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I've been sold out all over the world.
The young people look great on television. They're youthful and have a lot of zip and energy, but when you see them live, they can only do about 20 minutes because they haven't got the training to hold an audience for an hour and a half or so.
I was possessed with a wonderful example of my Italian American family. They would come over and join us every Sunday, all my aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces, and I would sing for them.
Never treat the audience disrespectfully.
My whole life has been singing and painting. I just do those two things.
I think one of the reasons I'm popular again is because I'm wearing a tie. You have to be different.
I still insist that American performers are the best performers in the world.
I have a simple life. I mean, you just give me a drum roll, they announce my name, and I come out and sing. In my job I have a contract that says I'm a singer. So I sing.
In America, at the beginning of talkies, they pulled Fred Astaire from the theaters and put him on the screen and had all of these great composers write songs for him. They call it the Great American Songbook; I call it the Fred Astaire Songbook because they were written for him.
If something is good, it's always good. You don't have to change it.
Gaga is a gorgeous singer, and when she sings a great ballad, I get goose bumps.
I know the history of the record business so well because I followed Billie Holiday into the record studios. It was so primitive compared to the sophisticated business today.
To work is to feel alive.
