"I wish that one of these days somebody would learn to do [my art] so it doesn't die where it is."
"Luck is fine, and you have to have luck to get the opportunity. But after that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it."
"Throughout my career, if I have done anything, I have paid attention to every note and every word I sing -- if I respect the song. If I cannot project this to a listener, I fail."
"People often remark that I'm pretty lucky.  Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment.  After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it."
"If I did half of what they say, I wouldn't be here - I'd be in a jar at Harvard."
When Harry Cohn, the notorious--and much despised--head of Columbia Pictures died, Hollywood crowds at his funeral prompted this famous Skelton response:

"It just goes to show you if you give the people what they want, they'll come out."


"I get an audience involved, personally involved, in a song because I'm involved myself. It's not something I do deliberately. I can't help myself,"
"I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniel's."
"You can be the most artistically perfect performer in the world, but an audience is like a broad--if you're indifferent, Endsville."
"I'm supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I've flunked more often than not. I'm very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don't understand them."
"May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine."
On Rock and Roll in 1958:

"It is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear."


Audio Quotes:
A toast from the man himself to you.

His wish for all his fans


His last words:

"I'm losin."