A number of young men about town used to make bets with each other about how much I ate at a sitting.
A weekly TV show requires a full day before the cameras, with many rehearsals.
A woman who is interested in work outside her home would be a better companion for her husband than one who is continually bored and complaining.
American men, who are working at home and doing an essential job, are the fathers of the sons for whom I'm working today.
An entertainer should in his public performance keep himself out of any controversy, political or otherwise.
As soon as I began to earn what might be called fairly large sums, I bought a car and began to explore the country around New York.
Because of my guest appearances on Ed Sullivan, Tennessee Ernie, and Perry Como shows, I was not free to take up anything new in the way of a career of job.
Because of my voice, speaking words which had been carefully chosen, women had used money they had set aside for other purposes to buy war bonds.
Before we tape the Kate Smith Show, I often stand off at one side and recite the words of a new song to myself.
By the time the United States entered the war, a number of factors, including God Bless America, had combined to define my role for the listening public.
During my second year on radio, CBS moved me from the seven o'clock time which had been so lucky for me. The public was fascinated by a new sound: Bing Crosby was on his way.
During the presidential primaries of 1940, I received a request from the Democratic National Committee to sing God Bless America before the speeches.
Every small town has its dramatic group, its barber-shop quartet, every home has music in one form or another.
Every song contains a human message.
Every song has one major attraction in its makeup, and that's what I work at first.
I am continually embarrassed by people who point me out as an example of what can be done without training.
I am exceedingly lucky that my voice, along with perfect pitch and perfect rhythm, was given me at birth.
I am harder on myself than anyone else could be.
I breathe, focus my tones and resonate them without knowing why.
I could not separate myself off stage from myself on stage, as so many actors can.
I could see myself in a white nurse's uniform, working unnoticed for many years and at last dying, unknown, unmarried and unsung.
I did get called Songbird of the South, and it took some years to live it down. Greenville, Virginia, is where I was born.
I felt completely inadequate to help mothers whose sons had been killed, so I always advised them to seek help from God.
I have always examined closely the motives of any group for which I am asked to raise money.
I have been extremely lucky with reviewers and critics throughout my career.
I have never known stage-fright at any time.
I have personally believed in every product I have ever advertised.
I haven't much of a head for languages.
I hope I will always be not asking what the future holds, but being thankful for the present.
I just can't read music.
I know I'm fat and I know my hair is straight, but I can sing.
I learn my songs by ear.
I measure my interpretation of a song continually against my ideal of what the song should be.
I must keep my promise to Our Lady since she had been so very good to me.
I must work hard to make my singing above reproach; there must be no faults which hard work would take care of.
I never ate anything before a show, but would cook up something in my apartment afterward.
I performed at a few Saturday amateur nights and won gold pieces, and I finally gave up nursing.
I shall always respect the composer. If I embellish, it is his idea I am embellishing.
I sometimes get that wonderful sympathy between me and the audience, telling me I've reached their hearts. And when I do, the thrill is mine.
I tried to act as a friend to the millions of women who worried as I did about the progress of the war.
I vowed that whenever my family needed me, I would give up everything to go to them, no matter what. The show must go on was meaningless to me.
I was always daydreaming about singing in big productions on Broadway.
I was beginning to acquire that affection for New York which has since made me never want to live anywhere else.
I was putting up a resistance against forces that were trying to push me into the oblivion of nursing school.
I went beyond my actual need for food, since I would eat during rehearsals just because food was around.
I wondered whether, had I been young in the '60s instead of the '30s, would my life have been different?
I've heard some cynics say that radio reached its height during and because of the war. I will never be convinced.
Ice cream was my undoing, and six chocolate milk shakes in a row were nothing to me at one time.
If rock-and-roll is well done, there's nothing so terribly wrong with that kind of music. But the lyrics are another story.
If women do take up new interests after 40, their marriages will also benefit from a return to conditions like those when both partners were young.
In 29 years, I had recorded over 2,200 songs. I was amazed.
In nearly all ballads, the words set the mood and meaning, while the music intensifies or enhances them.
Intelligent analysis of the composer's intention and strict adherence to it automatically ensures sincerity.
It became obvious in 1957 that I was endangering my health by carrying so much weight.
It is important that the audience should understand every syllable of every word, for only then can they grasp the meaning of the song.
It's hardly surprising that I was no lightweight.
It's up to the audience. It always has been.
Many people submit to excessive appetites without realizing that they do not need to eat so much food.
Middle-aged women have greater stability, they are more loyal, and their capacity for steady work is greater than that of younger women.
Most of the people who act and sing do so for their own pleasure and that of their friends and family.
My first approach to a song is to listen to it as a complete unit of verses and music.
My parents didn't want me to go on the stage.
My singing is part of me, like my stoutness, or my light hair, or my poor eyesight.
No member of the family had ever become a professional performer. They warned me of its immorality. They told me my weight would be a handicap to my career.
No one in the company of Honeymoon Lane had asked me to join the group for dinner and I hadn't been able to face eating alone.
Once you lose your taste for sweet things, they seem cloying and unpleasant, and there's no difficulty in doing without them.
Public and employer opinion often defeat society's best interests with a prejudice against middle-aged women.
Since I have been singing for so many years, I don't always need to approach a song quite so laboriously and meticulously.
Since the beginning of the war we had closed our house at Lake Placid and no longer got out of the city for the summer. Because gas was rationed, I had given up my car.
Television does not need a war to prove its worth.
That handshake was the only contract Ted and I ever made. We signed no papers, saw no lawyers.
The army quite naturally had abundant supplies of everything; the soldiers thought they would show their gratitude by helping me out with the food.
The main part of my act is songs, and I just finish up with the Charleston.
The relationship between Ted Collins and myself has never been the ordinary one between manager and singer.
The sound of my own voice no longer startles me.
There's no second chance on stage, and I was trained to make the most of my first chance.
This nation loves singing and loves acting.
What young girl of 18 can look forward to herself at 40 and plan accordingly?
When I'm singing a song of cheerfulness and hope, I remember the good times I've had and I sing with all the sense of joy I had then.
When people stop me on the street or in a store to tell me they like my program, I feel this is the greatest compliment of all.
When we go back on stage, an audience is there, giving the atmosphere of excitement that will galvanize our performance.
Women should and do dress to please men, but they should dress in the same manner even if men don't happen to be around.
Women who have higher degrees than the normal four-year college education could be extremely valuable to society during the shortage of college teachers.
You've got to be tough to take it.
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