The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh... was the place where Champagne Music was born.

One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters.

We really were a very musical family. Father managed to buy us a small pump organ, and I just loved this instrument.

The ones the listeners loved most of all in those early years were the four Lennon girls who became the whole nation's little sisters.

One time I introduced my orchestra as the Shampoo Music Makers instead of the Champagne Music Makers.

I always worried I'd forget my lines or say the wrong words or the audience would laugh in the wrong places.

The first time I try anything is invariably not very successful. I tend to grow slowly, but solidly.

When my parents first arrived there, North Dakota had just been admitted to the Union, and the country was still wild and harsh.

The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh... was the place where Champagne Music was born.

This is the best biography by me I have ever read.

If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come.

I was so anxious to succeed that I made a practice of appearing on all the disc jockey shows I could, in order to publicize the band.

I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me.

Conversation didn't seem necessary when I put the accordion down and swung some young lady around the floor.

You know, it's a long world.

I played a Spaniard. I looked about as Spanish as any other fair-skinned German.

Whenever you have a minute I'd like to see you right now.

Many times I wondered if I were truly carrying out God's plan for my life.

If I live to be 90, and I'm planning to, I'll always love performing for a live audience.

It's curious how we act in moments of personal despair.

If they can't hum it after we play it, it's not for us.

If any performer has quality in his voice he can almost always be helped to develop all the other necessary attributes.

Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.

There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them.

My accent remained terrible. It was very hard for me to initiate any conversation with someone I didn't know.

His act may start out slow, but it tapers off.

I expected to be a farmer like my father and brothers. Life seemed pleasant and orderly.

By 1969, when I celebrated 45 years in the music business, I also had 45 people in our musical family.

I just had an idea that went right over my head.

I just wrote a book, but don't go out and buy it yet, because I don't think it's finished yet.

I have never been an innovator, a creative genius.

Sounds always fascinated me.

Dreams do come true, even for someone who couldn't speak English and never had a music lesson or much of an education.

Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God.

I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.

Night after night I could feel the chills go up and down my spine, they played so well.

Music was my joy, my home, the one place I felt happy and secure.

In spite of the Depression, or maybe because of it, folks were hungry for a good time, and an evening of dancing seemed a good way to have it.

Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.

For a while we had trouble trying to get the sound of a champagne cork exploding out of the bottle. I solved the problem by sticking my finger in my mouth and popping it out.

I realized some of the pitfalls of being well-known; it was nice if you were successful, but it made it just that much harder to take when you failed.

Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life Each year has grown better than the last.

Its curious how we act in moments of personal despair.

When you use music to worship you are not attempting to entertain.

Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.

When I did the record, I was coming off a time when my contract had been sold and the music industry had changed a lot. I didn't understand how to make records for big labels. I was waiting for a new kind of record label to emerge.

You've got to realize. In the western world, regardless of what color you are, what title the music is, it's all played by the same notes.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

Whether I'm doing music or I'm walking down the street or I'm in a record store buying a record or I walk into a comic store and I'm buying comics or having a drink with my friends, it's the same me.