Fats Waller

I love you, yes I do, I love you. If you break my heart I’ll die. So be sure it’s true when you say I love you It’s a sin to tell a lie.

You get that right tickin’ rhythm, man and its ON!

If you’ve got to take it. Take it easy. Never hurry to a date. Eat your supper; let ’em wait.

This heart of mine could never see what everybody knew but me

Whenever I’m with you alone. You weave a magic spell and though it be a danger zone. I only know that you’re swell.

If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.

Amy Poehler and I have been friends for so long we’re like Oprah and Gale. Only we’re not denying anything.

When I was a kid, I’d be there in the stands thinking: ‘Come on Wolves, do it for me!’….And here I am again: ‘Come on Wolves,’ pleading with a borrowed laptop!

I wanted my voice to be a tenor sax, really.

Well I always wanted to be Dolly Parton when I was a little girl. I was obsessed with her.

Girls are a distraction and can easily cost points.

The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.

That’s right, it was a boy. And finally, we have a member of the royal family with an actual excuse for being a toothless, petulant, useless human being…That one could get me into trouble back home.

The thing is, I get asked when I first knew I wanted to act so often, and I genuinely can’t answer it. It’s just… I got the bug, and that’s it.

I just asked her to support me in this one thing. It’s not a big lie. She should have understood that I was just trying to sell the song to America’s premier songstress.

I am extremely square and obedient in nature!

I think, really, what it was was that I was raised in a very gray Britain in the 1950s. We were pummeled during the war. A lot of our cities were wrecked and smashed up and as we came out of that, we were baby boomers there; we didn’t have the candy apple red; we didn’t have the big chrome decals; we didn’t have Elvis. So what we did, we came out ferocious. We came out kicking and spitting and it was a reaction to the gray and depletion of our islands….

I never use that word, retire.

This is what I tell young women who ask me for career advice. People are going to try to trick you. To make you feel that you are in competition with one another. “You’re up for a promotion. If they go for a woman, it’ll be between you and Barbara.” Don’t be fooled. You’re not in competition with other women. You’re in competition with everyone.

[To Jimmy Webb] You’re really interested in a career? Wow, I just thought you were some guy who hung out in Las Vegas with Connie Stevens.

The whole idea of music, from the beginning of time, was for people to be happy.