“The privileged classes today are bothered about petrol and diesel prices while the poor can’t afford two meals a day. I am a very small person, but I want us to think beyond personal and regional interests.”

I have a fierce temper. I’ve mastered it over the years, but when I’m angry, no one can force me to do anything I don’t want to.

I wish I had given more time to learning classical singing.

I feel I am a little unfit for the kind of music that is being made today. There is a big difference between what I sang earlier and what is being made now. I am not saying this music is bad, but there are too many beats.

One has to be fully committed to one’s career. Otherwise, there’s no point.

I feel God has sent me to Earth to sing. I started singing when I was five, but I don’t think I’ve worked as hard as many other people.

I missed out on my childhood. I had to work hard, but I was immediately given a place in playback.

I wouldn’t let a biopic be made on me. That’s because I don’t believe in them. I don’t like them.

From my experience and understanding, I believe money follows name and fame, while recognition calls for a huge amount of sacrifice. To get something, you have to lose something. That’s the rule of life.

I have been singing for the last 50 years, you know, so I deserve a break. Besides, there are talented singers around who can do justice to their work.

My father passed away in 1942, and three-four months after his death, I had to start working. There was a responsibility on my shoulders to run the household. It was my duty as the eldest child in the house.

There are so many songs that I could not sing the way I wanted to. When such songs come on television or radio, I shut them off or leave the room.

For me, awards are a token of respect that people are giving me. So no matter how many awards I am receiving, I always feel emotional.

As a singer, you have to bring the soul to the song.

Today, the scope for variety has shrunk drastically. There are only a handful of topnotch composers like A. R. Rahman, Anu Malik, Jatin-Lalit that’s it.

I appreciate the change associated with people’s growth, but I don’t like the changes in our lives. I came to Mumbai in 1945, so imagine my acceptance of the massive changes around. I have witnessed every kind of revolution.

In my opinion, the biggest achievement was by Shankar-Jaikishan. With Raj Kapoor’s ‘Barsaat,’ they changed the way we looked at playback singing.

So long as freedom from hunger is only half achieved, so long as two thirds of the nations have food deficits, no citizen, no nation can afford to be satisfied.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

If you act like an adult when you’re a kid you can afford to act like a kid the rest of your life.

This country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor.

Aggressive fighting for the right is the noblest sport the world affords.

Hopefully, we can learn from the 60s that we cannot afford to do our enemies work by destroying each other.

Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.