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

I first heard Laura Branigan sing live in my brother Nesuhi’s apartment, where we had gone because he had a very good piano. I immediately realized that she had a great pop voice, in the classical sense.

I used to drink a bottle of vodka a day, every day, for about 40 years and it never occurred to me it’d kill me.

There’s been so much bad blood between the Kurds and the Turks.

Everybody at Atlantic knew that we had a winner in this young lady, and she came through with great hits that will be remembered for many years to come.

I’ve been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging.

I consider Laura to be one of my best signings, and I am proud to have had such a great singer in my career in the record business. We miss her dearly.

I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

My first wife was a theater person.

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

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.

Whether you like another bands music or not you never know who is going to take you out on tour or who you are going to be friends with and that is just something that is important to us.

Let it never appear in any place in its own name but always covered by another name and another occupation.

I’m proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It’s just another part of me.

In another situation, and in an active station in life,

It was like, who’s life is this? It was splendid, and the nice thing was that they renewed my contract for another year.

Obviously the power of the Times is discouraging. It’s killing new plays, demolishing one after another.

Comics know that they do best. They might not be best to rewrite to another person’s comedy, but they know what is best for them. Luckily,

Closeness to another person is like a fear of falling off a building to me. It’s really, like, physically painful, and it’s a brand of crazy I don’t appreciate having.