"I always worried I'd forget my lines or say the wrong words or the audience would laugh in the wrong places."

"If I live to be 90, and I'm planning to, I'll always love performing for a live audience."

"Night after night I could feel the chills go up and down my spine, they played so well."

"Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last."

"If they can't hum it after we play it, it's not for us."

"For a while we had trouble trying to get the sound of a champagne cork exploding out of the bottle. I solved the problem by sticking my finger in my mouth and popping it out."

"I just had an idea that went right over my head."

"I realized some of the pitfalls of being well-known; it was nice if you were successful, but it made it just that much harder to take when you failed."

"Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God."

"His act may start out slow, but it tapers off."

"Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns."

"I was so anxious to succeed that I made a practice of appearing on all the disc jockey shows I could, in order to publicize the band."

"Many times I wondered if I were truly carrying out God's plan for my life."

"I knew nothing of the real life of a musician, but I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion."

"I have never been an innovator, a creative genius."

"If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come."

"Dreams do come true, even for someone who couldn't speak English and never had a music lesson or much of an education."

"You know, it's a long world."

"Conversation didn't seem necessary when I put the accordion down and swung some young lady around the floor."

"When my parents first arrived there, North Dakota had just been admitted to the Union, and the country was still wild and harsh."

"I expected to be a farmer like my father and brothers. Life seemed pleasant and orderly."

"Music was my joy, my home, the one place I felt happy and secure."

"My accent remained terrible. It was very hard for me to initiate any conversation with someone I didn't know."

"This is the best biography by me I have ever read."

"Whenever you have a minute I'd like to see you right now."

"By 1969, when I celebrated 45 years in the music business, I also had 45 people in our musical family."

"I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me."

"The first time I try anything is invariably not very successful. I tend to grow slowly, but solidly."

"The ones the listeners loved most of all in those early years were the four Lennon girls who became the whole nation's little sisters."

"One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters."

"One time I introduced my orchestra as the Shampoo Music Makers instead of the Champagne Music Makers."

"If any performer has quality in his voice he can almost always be helped to develop all the other necessary attributes."

"It's curious how we act in moments of personal despair."

"The William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh... was the place where Champagne Music was born."

"In spite of the Depression, or maybe because of it, folks were hungry for a good time, and an evening of dancing seemed a good way to have it."

"We really were a very musical family. Father managed to buy us a small pump organ, and I just loved this instrument."