Diane Schuurs

Jimmy (Wakely) told me, ‘I don’t want you to sound so much like Dinah Washington.’ So, I thought, ‘How can I get around this?’ And one of the people I really dug was Patti Page. So I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to sound like her.’ I actually did with a couple curly-cues thrown in for effect, but, that’s how I started getting away from the predominant Dinah influence, and getting my own style together.

I met up with George Shearing about a year before my mother passed away. When I was 11 years old, Mama took me to the Edgewater Inn in Seattle and I was able to sit down and play piano for George and a lot of (the set list) was songs I had heard from the album, ‘Concerto For My Love.’ Then, after Mama died, my dad and I went to actually hear him perform at the Edgewater Inn when I was 12. Oh my gosh! It just really got me into playing piano.

I just remember always trying to emulate Dinah Washington, hanging out in my bedroom closet.

Maybe the best is yet to come, but I’ve already had the best.

It’s been quite a journey. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!

I wrote “Pilot of My Destiny” because of my love of flying. The fact that my brother is a pilot inspired me to write it. I call him pilot. He calls me copilot.

If you have your eye set on somebody, don’t beat around the bush.

It’s impossible to get along with David Geffen — his mind just moves so quickly. He’s always brighter than everybody else. I kept saying to him, ‘Sweetheart, you have a sweet side to you, a vulnerable side, but then you can be so mean and awful to people. Yeah, people are terrified of David — his temper, his intelligence. He’s not afraid of anybody.

People say that I’m a millionaire, but that’s not true – I only spend millions.

I’ve been scared and I’ve liked not hanging on to stuff where I know that I’m in my comfort zone.

I don’t know what it feels like not to have a great family support system – I was lucky to have that.

Twitter seems like a busman’s holiday: just more writing. I have no plans to do it. I’ll just stick with my 24/7 webcam. I’m old-fashioned that way.

I am very proud of the titles I have earned. However, the honorary title I have been given this year as chairman of the VA National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans program is one I accept with great humility and pride. I encourage all Americans to visit some true champions this Valentine’s week and find out how you can serve those who have served us so well.

I realized that sometimes I move so fast I don’t even see where I’ve been with any great perspective. I look into the now and slightly into the future, but rarely into the past. Searching and querying and mining the great terrain of life and relationships is where I’m at right now.

I think women are natural caretakers. They take care of everybody. They take care of their husbands and their kids and their dogs, and don’t spend a lot of time just getting back and taking time out.

The crowds treat me like my last name. When I go onstage people usually stand up, I never ask them to, but they do. They stand up and they don’t know how much I appreciate it.

I’ve discovered as I’ve grown up that life is far more complicated than you think it is when you’re a kid. It isn’t just a straight-forward fairytale.

When people apologize to me sincerely, I accept it. It’s really never too late to right your wrongs.

I have to turn down roles I really want to do because I can’t travel. But that’s okay, because you make peace with things in your mind.

Sick of all these people talking, sick of all this noise. Tired of all these cameras flashing, sick of being poised.

Well, I haven’t actually died “live” yet but I’ve been dead a few times. It’s strange, but it’s quite sort of relaxing. You feel like a bit of a therapist, because everyone’s giving you all their grief, and you’re just lying there listening. Yeah, it was quite nice, like no pressure after a couple weeks. I enjoyed it.