God, I would love it if I could sing or play something -- but I can't.

WHITEHOUSE: First Lady Speaks to Students at Blues Workshop

"I was a kid from Oklahoma who never wanted to be a singer, but was told I could sing, " she said in a 1999 interview.

BBC: Patti Page, singer of Tennessee Waltz, dies aged 85

"First of all, I'd listen for weeks to memorize and really study what I'm hearing so I could sing it in my sleep, " she said of her preparation for the new album.

WSJ: The Orchestra Is a Woman | Petra Haden | By Jim Fusilli

"I told them to sing as loud as they could and if they got scared, they could scream, " she said.

CNN: SHARE THIS

His feelings for his parents also emerge in songs like "123 Goodbye, " which includes the line "I love you more in death than I ever could in life, " though Perkins prefers to sing about these thoughts rather than talk about them.

NPR: Elvis Perkins: Out Of The 'Dirge'

"I thought the kids were more inspirational that they could get up there and sing despite everything that had happened to them, " she said.

NPR: Sandy Hook Choir, Hudson Delight Super Bowl Crowd

Have I tried to put an organization together that could raise funds, give dinners, get celebrities to sing and dance to get medicine, to do something to try and help these people that are dying, and dying this horrible death?

CNN: Elizabeth Taylor: Loving men and being a 'dame'

She wasn't somebody who could stand up and, say, like a Paul Robeson, make a whole sort of statement, but she could sing this song, and apparently, according to letters from--that I read of William Dufty, the ghostwriting journalist who wrote "The Lady Sings the Blues, " the FBI and other peoples actually said if she stopped singing this song they would give her an easier ride.

NPR: 'With Billie': A Jazz Great, As Others Saw Her