“Fame is always a shock to the system; there’s no school to go to, there are no books to read, and when it hits you, it’s a surprise. You could be working for 10, 20 years and when it finally hits you, you get knocked down.”

You know, when I did ‘American Idol’ the three times, I tried to tell these kids you have to tell the story of the lyric.

For a Jewish guy, I’ve recorded a lot of Christmas albums.

I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn’t even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous.

I stay glued to my piano and my work. I don’t look up. I write, I produce, I do the next project, I do my job. I don’t look up, and I try to be kind. I try to be kind to people. That’s what I do.

You say something stupid and the next morning you’re in the headlines.

My goal was always to be involved in music that would outlive me. And maybe that’s actually happening.

You can’t possibly prepare for what happens to you the day you hit No. 1 and people treat you differently.

I think the people who are out there for fame get themselves in a lot of trouble.

There’s just no quiet in Vegas.

I was always into the music. Music, in general, saved my life. But the fame part… I would look up, see what was going on around me, the reporters and photographers and all, and then I would just go back to making my music.

QVC has been very good to me.

Misfits aren’t misfits among other misfits.

I couldn’t bear the road anymore. I’m sure that a lot of people who have been on the road a long time will say the same thing. After a while, waiting for bedroom service and planes – I wanted to go home.

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life.

Everybody has to find out: who are you? What do you believe in?

No one person or material thing could ever come close to the feeling I get when the music is right.

It’s Sir Ben. I’ve not been a Mister for two years.

For many years Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle.

Once my loved one accepted the diagnosis, healing began for the entire family, but it took too long. It took years.

I’m a songwriter. So I’m OK. But when I wrote “Stand By Me” as a song and to know that the song will probably be here for hundred and hundreds of years to come, it’s great, you know. And it was just simple lyrics.

I did dancing and singing when I was little, and then when I was 12 years old my friends were taking speech and drama at school. They were private lessons, and I started doing that. Over the years everyone else dropped out and I just kept going. I loved it.

It took several years of hard work in small roles before I attained stardom.

I served seven years as the chair of the Princeton economics department where I had responsibility for major policy decisions, such as whether to serve bagels or doughnuts at the department coffee hour.

I studied at the Budapest Academy of Theatrical Arts for four years and emerged with a degree.