Sammy Davis

“There's nothing that can match Broadway for stature and dignity.”

“I go to temple a lot less than I would like because when I do, people still look at me as if they think it's a publicity stunt.”

“I believed in Bobby Kennedy. Campaigning for him was an attempt to give back something to this country that has given me so much.”

“The manic pursuit of success cost me everything I could love: my wife, my three children, some friends I would have liked to grow old with.”

“Real success is not on the stage, but off the stage as a human being, and how you get along with your fellow man.”

“I had more clothes than I had closets, more cars than garage space, but no money.”

“Ten million dollars after I'd become a star I was deeply in debt.”

“With an ocean between you and your European friends, you have to keep them in your heart.”

“You can be in this business 50 years and still not know anything about it.”

“The success of the Rat Pack or the Clan was due to the camaraderie, the three guys who work together and kid each other and love each other.”

“What have I got? No looks, no money, no education. Just talent.”

“Fame comes with its own standard. A guy who twitches his lips is just another guy with a lip twitch - unless he's Humphrey Bogart.”

“Alcohol gives you infinite patience for stupidity.”

“You don't swing where you sleep.”

“I had traveled 10 states and played over 50 cities by the time I was 4.”

“All I really had was my talent. Without that I wouldn't be welcome at the White House.”

“Sober up, and you see and hear everything you'd been able to avoid hearing before.”

“You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.”

“When Liza Minelli was a child, she used to sit on my lap and call me Uncle Sammy.”

“Being in public with May and the children was too heavy. I was irreversibly tuned in to everyone around us.”