“People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches – like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin – were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.”

The main thing is that Ataturk saw the desperate condition of the countries that had not had an industrial revolution.

I should have gotten the Beatles. But one of my lawyers kind of messed up.

Another one is Eric Clapton. Another one is Phil Collins. Eminem, Kanye West I like all those people.

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

The all-time greatest Atlantic group – The Drifters

There are still many great surviving talents: Stevie Winwood. Another great talent is Stevie Wonder.

The songwriters whom we think of being the greatest songwriters usually write one hit and six or seven flops.

The Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame will provide a center where the lives and the artistry of the greatest jazz musicians will be celebrated, and where people will come to learn about jazz, something to which my brother devoted his lifes work.

A singer’s biographical film should have their music and their voice.

It is a great life, this life of music.

You know you have a multimillion-seller hit – and what you’re working on suddenly has magic.

The first time I heard Clyde McPhatter singing with the Dominoes at the Apollo I just fell off my chair

I came close to signing Elvis Presley. I offered $25,000 for his contract and they asked for $45,000 and I just didn’t have the other $20,000.

At a time when it was very brave to do because Ataturk was cutting off the heads of the imams. And people thought that that was foolhardy of my father.

Ataturk saw where history was going. He really did in Turkey what we are all hoping somebody will do in [Islamic] countries where fundamentalists thrive, that they get somebody today that has the vision that Ataturk had in 1915.

My father believed very strongly in Ataturk. Ataturk was a very powerful man and a man of great vision.

Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then through his grace one realize him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to him as I am talking to you.

I gave him a bunch of ideas and then Vincent helped guide me and develop this particular film. I enjoy that rapport to have somebody else help guide me in my choices for the next film.

But none of that kept me from picturing what a tsunami might look like if it did rise up and roar toward my little boat like some watery blue version of the Great Wall of China.

This film [ Blue is the Warmest Color] actually is the result of me talking with my producer Vincent [Maraval].

He’d made sure i had something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

He seems like a man who knows what he wants, and the problem is he wants what I want. If it were anything or anyone else, I could stand back and let him take it.” His blue eyes gazed back at me. “But I can’t let him have you.

Those blue eyes that had stopped my heart the first time she looked at me found me in the crowd.” -Cage

I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music