Peggy Lee

I regard singing pretty much like acting. Each song is like playing a different role. I get very involved with my material. I feel a responsibility for the emotion it brings out in the listener.

I really feel like I made it a great record. I really feel good about it. In this day and age to make a record that you say, ‘This is different,’ that’s a tough nut. I did it by accident but it got done. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know how to do it.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self- consciousness.

You explore beautiful songs and create your own interpretation of them.

Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.

Just because I’m playing jazz I don’t forget about me. I play or write me the way I feel through jazz, or whatever. Music is, or was, a language of the emotions.

The sign of a mature musician is knowing what not to play.

Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple.

When I achieved what I thought the musicians were trying to do, the sound sort of bloomed. When it’s right, everything is beautiful.

Anyone who doesn’t give [his debut album, The College Dropout] a perfect score is lowering the integrity of the magazine

I don’t do something because I think it will sell 30 million albums. I couldn’t care less. If it sells one, it sells one.

I wanted to connect my guitar to human emotions.

If you already have a piece of music ingrained in your body, why would you not play it?

We all played bad before we played good.

I cannot say what I think is right about Music. I only know the rightness of it.

To me, singing is like talking. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t right.