I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin’ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

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.

Too much TV hurts movies.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

Man, that record came out and was real big in Memphis. They started playing it, and it got real big. Don’t know why-the lyrics had no meaning.

I happened to come along in the music business when there was no trend.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

Until we meet again, may God bless you as he has blessed me.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

I was an only child, and Mother was always right with me all my life. I used to get very angry at her when I was growing up-it’s a natural thing.

I have no use for bodyguards, but I have very specific use for two highly trained certified public accountants.

I think I have something tonight that’s not quite correct for evening wear. Blue suede shoes.

Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.

They put me on television. And the whole thing broke loose. It was wild, I tell ya for sure.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much with my life story.

Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I can’t help it.’

Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

The next thing I knew, I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called, GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.

After a hard day of basic training, you could eat a rattlesnake.

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.

I’ll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I’ll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don’t think those things are right for me.

Man, I really like Vegas.

I’m so nervous. I’ve always been nervous, ever since I was a kid.

Since the beginning, it was just the same. The only difference, the crowds are bigger now.

Every time I think that I’m getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.

I’ve tried to lead a straight, clean life, not set any kind of a bad example.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I’m not trying to be sexy. It’s just my way of expressing myself when I move around.

When I got outta High School I was driving a truck. I was just a poor boy from Memphis, Memphis.

There are too many people that depend on me. I’m too obligated. I’m in too far to get out.

Rhythm is something you either have or don’t have, but when you have it, you have it all over.

More than anything else, I want the folks back at home to think right of me.

Later on they send me to Hollywood. To make movies. It was all new to me. I was only 21 years old.

I was an overnight sensation.

I’ll stay in Memphis.

I don’t do any vulgar movements.

That’s why I hate to get started in these jam sessions. I’m always the last one to leave.

My movements, ma’am, are all leg movements. I don’t do nothing with my body.

It’s human nature to gripe, but I’m going ahead and doing the best I can.

I sure lost my musical direction in Hollywood. My songs were the same conveyer belt mass production, just like most of my movies were.

Those movies sure got me into a rut.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

I’d just like to be treated like a regular customer.

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

When I was a boy, I always saw myself as a hero in comic books and in movies. I grew up believing this dream.

From the time I was a kid, I always knew something was going to happen to me. Didn’t know exactly what.

I never expected to be anybody important.

I knew by heart all the dialogue of James Dean’s films; I could watch Rebel Without a Cause a hundred times over.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

I’m strictly for Stevenson. I don’t dig the intellectual bit, but I’m telling you, man, he knows the most.

The Lord can give, and the Lord can take away. I might be herding sheep next year.

I’ve been getting some bad publicity – but you got to expect that.

I like to sing ballads the way Eddie Fisher does and the way Perry Como does. But the way I’m singing now is what makes the money.

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don’t want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

I did the Ed Sullivan show four times. I did the Steve Allen show. I did the Jackie Gleason show.

I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.

I like entertaining people. I really miss it.

When I get married, it’ll be no secret.

I’ll never make it, it will never happen, because they’re never going to hear me ’cause they’re screaming all the time.

I miss my singing career very much.