I learned very early in life that: "Without a song, the day would never end; without a friend, a man ain`t got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend- without a song" So I keep singing a song.

I get tired of playing a guy who gets into a fight, then starts singing to the guy he`s just beat up."

I am not the King. Jesus Christ is the King. I`m just an entertainer.

The police filmed a show one time in Florida because of the P.G.A, Y.M.C.A., or somebody. They thought that I was...something. They said, `Man, he`s got to be crazy`. So they, the police, came out and filmed the show. I couldn`t move. I had to stand still. The only thing I could move was my little finger like that. `You ain`t nothing but a hound dog crying all the time`, y`know, for the whole show.

[1956] "The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I`m doin` now, man, for more years than I know. They played it like that in their shanties and in their juke joints and nobody paid it no mind `til I goosed it up. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said if I ever got to a place I could feel all old Arthur felt, I`d be a music man like nobody ever saw."

I don`t know anything about music. In my line you don`t have to.

Since I was two years old, all I knew was gospel music. That music became such a part of my life it was as natural as dancing. A way to escape from my problems, an my way of release.

[I just fell into it really. My daddy and I were laughing about it the other day. He looked at me and said, `What happened, El? The last thing I remember is I was working in a can factory and you were driving a truck`. We all feel the same way about it. Still it just caught us up."

I`ve never gotten over what they call stage fright. I go through it every show. I`m pretty concerned, I`m pretty much thinking about the show. I never get completely comfortable with it, and I don`t let the people around me get comfortable with it, in that I remind them that it`s a new crowd out there, it`s a new audience, and they haven`t seen us before. So it`s got to be like the first time we go on.

[On Blue Hawaii (1961)] "In the movie we did a song called the `Hawaiian Wedding Song`. And it was so real that it took me ten years before I realized I wasn`t married to the chick."

Roy Orbison is the greatest singer in the world.

I wiggle my shoulders, I shake my legs, I walk up and down the stage, I hop around on one foot. But I never bump and grind. Why, that`s vulgar. I`d never do anything vulgar before an audience. My mother would never allow it.

Take care of the fans and they will sure as hell take care of you.

I want to entertain people. That`s my whole life. To my last breath.

[at a 1972 press conference in Madison Square Garden] Man, I was tame compared to what they do now, are you kidding? All that I ever did was just jiggle.

A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It`s my favorite part of the business - live concerts.

The image is one thing and the human being is another, it`s very hard to live up to an image.

My daddy had seen a lot of people who played guitars and stuff and didn`t work, so he said, "You should make up your mind either about being an electrician or playing a guitar, and I never saw a guitar player that was worth a damn".

[on performing] It`s like a surge of electricity going through you. It`s almost like making love, but it`s even stronger than that . . . sometimes I think my heart is going to explode.

I just fell into it, really. My daddy and I were laughing about it the other day. He looked at me and said, "What happened, El? The last thing I remember is I was working in a can factory and you were driving a truck". We all feel the same way about it. Still, it just caught us up.

There`s been a big change in the music field in the last 10 or 12 years. I think everything has improved - the sounds have improved, the musicians have improved, the engineers have definitely improved. I like a lot of the new groups, y`know, The Beatles and The Byrds and the . . . whoever, but I really like a lot of the new music, but a lot of it is basically, our music is basically, rock `n roll music is basically gospel or rhythm and blues. People have been adding to it, adding instruments to it, experimenting with it.

[his acceptance speech from the 1970 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Awards] When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed has come true a hundred times . . . I learned very early in life that "Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain`t got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend - without a song". So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.

Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do `em all together, I guess.

I don`t like being called Elvis The Pelvis. That`s gotta be one of the most childish expressions I`ve ever heard coming from an adult.

[when asked what kind of music he sings] I sing all kinds.

[when asked who he sounded like] I don`t sound like nobody.