Diane Schuurs

I was always exposed to music. Mom and dad would have the radio on constantly.

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.

I’ve already done so much. The rest is just gravy, it’s like frosting on the cake

Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz had been friends of mine, and I wanted to pay tribute to them.

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

My career has been a combination of hard work and timing. Working with Stevie Wonder at the Kennedy Center Honors was timing. The Tonight Show was timing. Carnegie Hall, that was timing. My marriage was timing. I was ready, I wanted to know what it was like.

I always dream about other musicians. And they’re never interested in hanging out with us. It’s like being at school and the bigger boys don’t want to play with you!

I’m not always the first person to run out and see something I’m in. I don’t know; for me, that’s not why I did it. I did it because I wanted to act. I don’t really think about the end result. I don’t feel like I have to see it – for me, it already happened.

I am a big Jeff Richmond fan.

I think the yule ball is more attractive to the girls who read it, I never really thought “Oh I get to go to the ball!

You can sometimes get your own feelings across more strongly if you pretend that you’re singing it from someone else’s angle. But it’s always from me. It’s just a new way of framing it.

I wrote my own verses. Anything I did, I wrote myself.

I don’t try to just be a blues singer – I try to be an entertainer. That has kept me going.

It is a little insulting that you’re trying to appeal to adult women voters the same way that Mattel attempts to appeal to eight year olds. And at least Barbie’s pink bus had the good sense to unfold into a sweet hot tub and party den combo. … The only way it could be even more patronizing is if its wheels were giant NuvaRings and they refused to let women drive it.

I like to delude myself that I’m in the old-Hollywood mode. I just tailor my clothes well and try to keep my skin clear. While it would be great to work out an hour a day, there is something inherently sort of selfish about it. I can’t do it.

In reality, the main thing that keeps me awake at night is probably the destruction of the planet; that’s what gets me pretty upset.

I resent performing for frisking idiots who don’t know anything.

If the songs aren’t there and you throw a TV set out of the window, who cares?

I prefer being as far from the centre of celebrity as possible.

Denver’s pretty quick. They couldn’t keep up with him in the open field.

This is what happens when you release a great body of work after they spent millions to ruin you.