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

and I got the collection my Mother had, and I can’t sell any of it.

I’m no hillbilly singer.

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

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody . . . . Country music was always an influence on my kind of music.

I don’t make no dirty movements

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

I was an overnight sensation.

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

When things go bad, don’t go with them.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

When things go wrong don’t go with them

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

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

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Ain’t nowhere else in the world where you can go from driving a truck to cadillac overnight

I never expected to be anybody important.

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

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

A Sharon.

[His favorite room in his home is a bedroom he calls] The King’s Room. … She’s the greatest girl in the world.

It more or less puts your mind at ease, … It does mine.

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

I don’t do any vulgar movements.

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

Animals don’t hate, and we’re supposed to be better than them.

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

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

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.

You got change, man?

better stick to driving trucks.

I am hands on with this with Bruno,

I believe in the Bible. I believe that all good things come from God. I don’t believe I’d sing the way I do if God hadn’t wanted me to.’

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

Man, I really like Vegas.

Be ye innocent as doves yet wise as serphants” new testament quoted by Elvis Presley and applied to karate

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

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

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

Singers come and go, but if you’re a good actor, you can last a long time

Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside

nothing to do with him.

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

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.