Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

When I got outta High School I was driving a truck. I was just a poor boy from Memphis, Memphis.

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.

There are too many people that depend on me. I'm too obligated. I'm in too far to get out.

I'm strictly for Stevenson. I don't dig the intellectual bit, but I'm telling you, man, he knows the most.

When I get married, it'll be no secret.

It's human nature to gripe, but I'm going ahead and doing the best I can.

I miss my singing career very much.

Later on they send me to Hollywood. To make movies. It was all new to me. I was only 21 years old.

The next thing I knew, I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called, GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.

I never expected to be anybody important.

That's why I hate to get started in these jam sessions. I'm always the last one to leave.

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don't want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

I happened to come along in the music business when there was no trend.

Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don't know why-the lyrics had no meaning.

A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It's my favorite part of the business, live concerts.

Every time I think that I'm getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.

Those movies sure got me into a rut.

The Lord can give, and the Lord can take away. I might be herding sheep next year.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

More than anything else, I want the folks back at home to think right of me.

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to.

I don't do any vulgar movements.

I've tried to lead a straight, clean life, not set any kind of a bad example.

Too much TV hurts movies.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

I did the Ed Sullivan show four times. I did the Steve Allen show. I did the Jackie Gleason show.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It's very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

From the time I was a kid, I always knew something was going to happen to me. Didn't know exactly what.

I've been getting some bad publicity - but you got to expect that.

They put me on television. And the whole thing broke loose. It was wild, I tell ya for sure.

Since the beginning, it was just the same. The only difference, the crowds are bigger now.

Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it.'

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me.

I'm so nervous. I've always been nervous, ever since I was a kid.

I was an overnight sensation.

My movements, ma'am, are all leg movements. I don't do nothing with my body.

I'll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I'll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don't think those things are right for me.

I'll never make it, it will never happen, because they're never going to hear me 'cause they're screaming all the time.

I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.

I hope I didn't bore you too much with my life story.