I got the Margaret Sanger award. I was kissed by President Obama.

Before I became an orphan of the Holocaust my early family life was stable. I grew up as a German Jew in Frankfurt, and I was in a household with two loving parents and an adoring grandmother who spoiled me. My mother helped my father in their wholesale business and they went to synagogue every Friday.

Every person deserves respect.

We just do not know what is normal.

I'm old-fashioned and a square.

When the first armies were formed, combat took courage, which women share equally with men, and strength, which we do not. But though I am only 4 feet 7 inches tall, with a gun in my hand I am the equal of a soldier who's 6 feet 7 - perhaps even at a slight advantage, as I make a smaller target.

At the age of 16 I immigrated to Palestine from Europe, where I became a member of the Haganah, the main underground army of the Jews.

I learned to assemble a rifle in the dark and was trained as a sniper so that I could hit the center of the target time after time. As it happened, I never did get into actual combat, but that didn't prevent my being severely wounded. I almost lost both my feet as a result of a bombing attack on Jerusalem.

Now were it up to me, I would abolish all warfare.

I believe my soul isn't entirely German because my home is so disorderly.

I'm a very lucky mother.

If someone has gone through a lot of emotional pain, including the loss of loved ones, that person may try to build a shell around his or her feelings to protect him- or herself from the pain.

There are times when you should never give a cheater a second chance, but there also are exceptions.

Even top fashion models get critical about one certain part of their body that they do not like. So perfection is impossible.

When you feel yourself being critical, whether it is of yourself or another person, stop yourself. Look for positive aspects to admire.

It is impossible to deny that people in power face more temptations than ordinary citizens.

When some women literally throw themselves at you, it's easy to get confused and think that every woman is eager for your attentions.

If Congress wants to get involved in the business of morality by allowing a moment of silence in our schools, I support that. But if our representatives in Washington are truly going to be moral leaders, then they have to do more than just tell us to pray for guidance.

I'm very lucky, because it's a combination of the German, the Hebrew, the Swiss, the French, and that accent helped because as soon as people heard it they knew it was me.

When I was in Switzerland, I still had the fantasy I could have saved my parents and family if I'd stayed in Germany. All nonsense. If they had not made the sacrifice to send their only child to Switzerland, I wouldn't be alive.

You walk into a restaurant these days, and what you see is everyone with their phone next to them. That is terrible. Instead of concentrating on the relationship, on the needs and activities and interests of the other person, they are constantly looking at their phone.

I have in my bones, and in my blood, the knowledge that you have to help the people who are persecuted.

My parents sent me to Switzerland on a Kindertransport.

People like me have to stay away from politics.

My father taught me to study, study, study hard and he sent me to a very good Jewish school even though it was not near the house.

My mother was a very quiet woman and people say that she didn't get much of a chance to talk because my grandmother and I talked so much.

For many years, I didn't have a home.

I love small things. I love them.

I may have been on the cover of People and gone on 'David Letterman' and 'Arsenio Hall' because they had young audiences I wanted to talk to. But at the same time, I always did serious books or taught seminars.

I was 50 when I had my first show, so I was never on television with a short skirt or decollete; I never tried to look or be younger.

I have some afflictions, like diabetes 2, but I take care. I sleep well.

A lesson taught with humor is a lesson retained.

Why should only rich men have young, beautiful women? Rich women should have young, beautiful men.

I'm never embarrassed to say, 'I don't know.'

I once went with my grandson to a county fair where you shoot a water pistol at the clown's mouth. We came home with twelve stuffed animals and a goldfish.

Being the front guy is a hard job.

I toured around for years, but the road was always a drag for me. I never made a dime. In fact, I lost a lot of money - it was horrible.

'Geronimo' was a huge amount of work. That involved 80-piece orchestras and Indians and Tuvans and all kinds of crazy people on that thing. That's a real circus, that score.

Who does this, at age 71, try to put a tour together from scratch? I have to say it's scary at times. But I like a challenge 'cause it keeps you on your toes.

The '50s was the golden age of music all over the world for some crazy, 'X-File'-like reason I can't quite understand.

I just feel that music is a great life because it's very rewarding. It's a gratification. You do this for yourself, and you also do this for other people.

I keep my mind on track, and I don't get mad, and I don't get frustrated. Well, I do... but creative work, it's a way of controlling all that.

If you're taught to hate and fear a people or a country, and it works, it's because of your ignorance of that country. You have no contact with it, nor do you know what you're hating and fearing.

Music creates complicity, and then you feel less isolated.

I don't understand the public, but I do believe the public is oversold and underrated every day. Give the people something interesting, something to chew on, I say.

Santa Monica, where I have always lived, is not a town where you will find storefront Church of God in Christ churches. So, the whole idea of gospel quartet singing is something I never knew existed until I began to hear it on record.

If it hadn't been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers, and Alan Lomax, then life would've been unbelievably dull, and I would've been sacking groceries somewhere and probably, at this point, running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport.

People have all sorts of expectations which you can't meet. Me, I'm so reclusive I stay away from such things as much as I can. I never go anywhere.

I always thought East L.A. music was so dreamy and languid and kinda greasy.

Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough. Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes.