My mother always told me, even if a song has been done a thousand times, you can still bring something of your own to it. I'd like to think I did that.

Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.

I really turned into, you know, the real street kid. I was kind of like a runaway, but I had a mother, you know what I mean, and I had a place to stay.

See, I don't like places where people can't dance - don't like clubs or theatres where a bunch of bourgeois people sit around tip, tip, tipping their fingers.

The Russian Federation's practice of instant citizenship, whereby Russian passports are distributed willy-nilly to ethnic Russians abroad so they can be 'protected' in their current homeland, is unacceptable. Passports are travel documents, not a tool to justify aggression.

I like to travel by myself.

Without much money, I traveled to Argentina to see the meat industry, and after that, I wanted to travel to the United States, but I was refused a visa 5 or 6 times, but I never gave up.

Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life.