“First of all, I’ve been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums, songs I didn’t write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums, and they were all very successful.”

Touring is a young man’s game, but after 30 years of it, I want to stay home.

I feel that after all those horrible reviews and jokes, I wasn’t crazy all these years to stand up for the music I believe in. This album has proven that somewhere in the human race, the human heart is still racing and breaking and I am so grateful.

I keep reading about people who want to be famous – it’s not that they want to be great songwriters or great actors, they want to be celebrities. That is scary because you can be famous doing some really stupid things.

My style of music is the great American songbook meets the pop world of the Seventies and Eighties.

The melody seems to have gone to the country. The country music seems to still have melody and interesting lyrics. But pop music, you’ve got to really listen hard to somebody who’s doing a good melody and a good lyric.

My hair was slicked down with a part. But that was before I discovered the blow-dryer. Now I’m fabulous.

If I Should Love Again’ – I was just so impressed with myself writing something like that. It wasn’t a single and people didn’t really know about it, but it’s a beautiful song and that’s part of what I’m loving.

Yeah, I’m old as the hills and you would think I’d be out to pasture someplace because I’ve done everything, but nothing has changed.

Every few years, I go back into all the songs and I update them so that it never sounds like an oldies show. If you come to the shows, they’re full of muscle. ‘Copacabana’ sounds like it could have been released yesterday.

Here’s proof that if you live long enough, anything is possible.

I didn’t want to be treated like a ‘star.’ I fought it constantly, and I think I was rude.

Sneakers are not my thing.

Whenever there was a choice between music and anything else, music won hands down every time.

When it comes to me, I just write the most beautiful music I can, I do the best work I can, and then I hand it out there.

I’ve always wanted to marry Elton John.

These days, with ‘American Idol’ and all the other reality shows, young people become famous overnight, and that can be very difficult to handle, the way photographers follow you around and study your every move.

All I can tell you is I played with Johnny Mitchell. Johnny Mitchell was one of the greatest athletic talents I ever played with, but I could never trust him.

The long run is the single most important ingredient to marathon success.

We will be asked, “what did you love most in this world? What did you spend life doing? What did you run after? Will it last? The things that you chased, will they last? Will they help you, or will they hurt you when the illusion of this life has passed?”

As soon as I arrive at the house, Laurie starts running, hits my chest, knocks me down, and licks my face. It’s become a family ritual.

Coming off the last turn, my thoughts changed from ‘One more try…one more try…one more try…’ to ‘I can win! I can win! I can win!

A doctor once told me that with crying you aren’t sure what its derivation is. If someone comes at you with a knife, you don’t cry: you scream, you try to run. When it’s over and you’re OK, that’s when you cry.

The most difficult part, when you decide to make running a part of your life style, is the basic initial commitment.

The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP, they have run out of better ideas.