Johnny Mathis

“I invite a lot of my friends to some of the performances that I do locally, and some of them know that I'm involved with music, but they're not quite sure how. And so it's kind of fun to play golf with a lot of my friends and then invite them to hear me sing once in a while.”

“The voice muscle doesn't last forever. I have a lot of friends who are classical and opera singers. My friend Beverly Sills stopped singing in her 50s, so I'm careful with mine. But I'll keep going as long as it lets me.”

“As a child, all I knew was that people kept asking me to sing, and because I liked to please, I would sing. It wasn't until my dad told me that my singing made him happy that I began to think my voice might be good.”

“I had stage fright for years and years, and I could hear it in my singing. But since I've done it so often for so many years, you'd think that I'd relax a little bit, and I think that I have.”

“Pavarotti's is the best male voice, and Joan Sutherland had a big voice but also acquired great coloratura notes.”

“Each person's voice is very different, so you need to find what works for you. Make sure you keep to your routine.”

“I have to remember that no matter how often I perform, there are certain songs that the audience truly wants to hear, and even though I've sung it 100,000 times, it may be their first time hearing them.”

“I don't think about the future. It sort of will take care of itself; there's not really much that I can do other than fundamental things like taking care of my voice, keeping to my exercise routine, and getting some rest.”

“Tony Bennett and me are all the same... and he's still singing. I don't know what else to do.”

“As long as those things are on vinyl or tape or what have you, the record companies are going to release them someday.”

“Along the way, everyone's been saying, 'Make sure you take care of your voice because you're going to want to do it the rest of your life.' And it's absolutely true.”

“My mom and dad always tried to make Christmas special for us. We were poor, but it's funny because we had no idea.”

“I had a good record company right from the beginning, and I'm still with them after all these years. I think I may be the only person in the world that's had a tenure this long with any record company.”

“I've had relationships with people from all over the world, but there has never been enough time in a day for me to have anything other than just close relationships. I've never been one to give myself over to anybody. I don't know what is wrong with me, but it never happened.”

“I've never been married, and I have no regrets about not starting my own family. I come from a large one, so there are so many people around all the time. I've been very happy, but I've never gotten married. That's about the size of it. I would have been a good father because I've been a father to my brothers' and sisters' children.”

“In other words, the celebrity gets out of hand, and if you're not careful, you will forget what you are about - and that is you are about making music that people want to hear.”

“Over the years, I was lucky; right from the beginning, I studied with a lady who had a lot of... she was a classical singer, and of course, they're a little bit more into, you know, preserving the voice, making sure your instrument is ready to perform.”

“Every time I try to tell people things about my career, I wonder if that's the truth or something I'm fantasizing about.”

“I've recorded in Portuguese, too. I didn't set out to just sing ballads or romantic songs.”

“I thought I sounded a little like Eartha Kitt for a long time, and I didn't like it.”