That was a great game of golf, fellas.

There is nothing in the world I wouldn`t do for Hope, and there is nothing he wouldn`t do for me... We spend our lives doing nothing for each other.

Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won`t make it "white".

My golf is woeful but I will never surrender.

[on his phenomenally successful single "White Christmas"] A jackdaw with a cleft palate could have sung it successfully.

We`d dub the one that came off best into the final transcription. It gave us a chance to ad lib as much as we wanted, knowing that excess ad libbing could be sliced from the final product.

I think popular music in this country is one of the few things in the twentieth century that have made giant strides in reverse.

If I made a mistake in singing a song or in the script, I could have some fun with it, then retain any of the fun that sounded amusing.

It gave us a chance to first try a recording of the songs in the afternoon without an audience, then another one in front of a studio audience.

[on Grace Kelly] She`s a great lady, with great talent and kind, considerate, friendly with everybody. She was great with the crew and they all loved her.

[on Fred Astaire] But when you`re in a picture with Astaire, you`ve got rocks in your head if you do much dancing. He`s so quick-footed and so light that it`s impossible not to look like a hay-digger compared with him.

[on W.C. Fields] His comedy routines appeared spontaneous and improvised, but he spent much time perfecting them. He knew exactly what he was doing every moment, and what each prop was supposed to do. That "my little chickadee" way of talking of his was natural.

[on Judy Garland] There wasn`t a thing that gal couldn`t do -- except look after herself.

[on Judy Garland] The most talented woman I ever knew was Judy Garland. She was a great, great comedienne and she could do more things than any girl I ever knew. Act, sing, dance, make you laugh. She was everything. I had a great affection for her. Such a tragedy. Too much work, too much pressure, the wrong kind of people as husbands.

[on Bob Hope] Hope? He`s got more money on him than I have.

[on Frank Sinatra] He has this tense Sicilian quality while I don`t have any tenseness at all and I just hang in there with what I call a dead ass. But Frank gets picked on by people who want to see how tough he is and he usually obliges them with a demonstration. Like all Sicilians, if he is a friend he will always be a friend -- and if he is an enemy, go on hating.

[in 1954] I don`t sing anywhere as good as I used to, and I feel sincerely that it`s getting worse. I don`t see any purpose in trying to stretch something out that was once acceptable and that now is merely adequate, if that. I don`t know what the reason for this condition is, unless it`s apathy. I just don`t have the interest in singing. I am not keen about it any more. Songs all sound alike to me, and some of them so shoddy and trivial. I don`t mean I didn`t sing some cheap songs in the old days, but I had such a tremendous interest in singing and was so wrapped up in the work that it didn`t matter. I don`t know how to diagnose the condition, but it seems to me that possibly this apathy, this lack of desire, when I have to go to a recording session, transmits itself into nervous exhaustion and fatigue.

Once or twice I`ve been described as a light comedian. I consider this the most accurate description of my abilities I`ve ever seen.

[his own epitaph] He was an average guy who could carry a tune.

Honestly, I think I`ve stretched a talent which is so thin it`s almost transparent over a quite unbelievable term of years.

[in 1975, about Elvis Presley] He never contributed a damn thing to music.

Everyone knows I`m just a big, good-natured slob.

I think popular music in this country is one of the few things in the 20th century that have made great strides in reverse.

Frank [Frank Sinatra] is a singer who comes along once in a lifetime, but why did he have to come in mine?

[his reported last words] That was a great game of golf, fellers.