Barry Manilow Quotes

“My hair was slicked down with a part. But that was before I discovered the blow-dryer. Now I'm fabulous.”

— Barry Manilow

Everything you say and do is having an impact on others.

— Barry Manilow

“You know, when I did 'American Idol' the three times, I tried to tell these kids you have to tell the story of the lyric.”

— Barry Manilow

“For a Jewish guy, I've recorded a lot of Christmas albums.”

— Barry Manilow

I was the Justin Bieber of the '70s. Really, I was.

— Barry Manilow

“Misfits aren't misfits among other misfits.”

— Barry Manilow

“No one person or material thing could ever come close to the feeling I get when the music is right.”

— Barry Manilow

“The public needs to know - they need to know as much about atrial fibrillation as they do about cancer and diabetes.”

— Barry Manilow

“Everybody has to find out: who are you? What do you believe in?”

— Barry Manilow

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life.

— Barry Manilow

“I didn't want to be treated like a 'star.' I fought it constantly, and I think I was rude.”

— Barry Manilow

“Sneakers are not my thing.”

— Barry Manilow

Yeah, I'm old as the hills and you would think I'd be out to pasture someplace because I've done everything, but nothing has changed.

— Barry Manilow

“I love any opportunity I have to make music.”

— Barry Manilow

“'If I Should Love Again' - I was just so impressed with myself writing something like that. It wasn't a single and people didn't really know about it, but it's a beautiful song and that's part of what I'm loving.”

— Barry Manilow

“My goal was always to be involved in music that would outlive me. And maybe that's actually happening.”

— Barry Manilow

“Touring is a young man's game, but after 30 years of it, I want to stay home.”

— Barry Manilow

“You say something stupid and the next morning you're in the headlines.”

— Barry Manilow

Every few years, I go back into all the songs and I update them so that it never sounds like an oldies show. If you come to the shows, they're full of muscle. 'Copacabana' sounds like it could have been released yesterday.

— Barry Manilow

To write a love song that might be able to make it on the radio, that is something that is terrifying to me. But I can definitely write a song about that chair over there. That I can do, but to sit and write a pop song out of the clear blue sky, that is very difficult and I admire the people that can do it.

— Barry Manilow

“I come from nowhere Brooklyn, New York. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These days Williamsburg is kind of a hip area, but when I grew up there, the taxi drivers wouldn't even go over the bridge, it was so dangerous.”

— Barry Manilow

“I feel that after all those horrible reviews and jokes, I wasn't crazy all these years to stand up for the music I believe in. This album has proven that somewhere in the human race, the human heart is still racing and breaking and I am so grateful.”

— Barry Manilow

“These days, with 'American Idol' and all the other reality shows, young people become famous overnight, and that can be very difficult to handle, the way photographers follow you around and study your every move.”

— Barry Manilow

“'Tryin' to Get the Feeling' has been a revelation. I'd forgotten how powerful that was. I'd forgotten how deep I can crawl into that one, and maybe because I'm older it means even more.”

— Barry Manilow

First of all, I've been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums, songs I didn't write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums, and they were all very successful.

— Barry Manilow

“I'm still hungry. I've still got a million ideas. I'm still strong and ready to create.”

— Barry Manilow

“I believe in my writing.”

— Barry Manilow

“QVC has been very good to me.”

— Barry Manilow

“There's just no quiet in Vegas.”

— Barry Manilow

“Whenever there was a choice between music and anything else, music won hands down every time.”

— Barry Manilow

“You can't possibly prepare for what happens to you the day you hit No. 1 and people treat you differently.”

— Barry Manilow

Atrial fibrillation has been the low man on the totem pole and so we're just trying to get more visibility about this particular disease and how dangerous this could be.

— Barry Manilow

“The shows at the Hilton are the most exciting shows I've ever done. The stage is huge, but the theater is intimate, so we can have a magnificent production and still connect with the audience.”

— Barry Manilow

“What we hear now is great-sounding records with great-sounding grooves and loops. And the sound of these records is irresistible, but the craft of songwriting is just about over. That's why, whenever I get an opportunity to do an album full of standards, I jump at it because I miss it.”

— Barry Manilow

“I couldn't bear the road anymore. I'm sure that a lot of people who have been on the road a long time will say the same thing. After a while, waiting for bedroom service and planes - I wanted to go home.”

— Barry Manilow

“I've always wanted to marry Elton John.”

— Barry Manilow

“I keep reading about people who want to be famous - it's not that they want to be great songwriters or great actors, they want to be celebrities. That is scary because you can be famous doing some really stupid things.”

— Barry Manilow

I was always into the music. Music, in general, saved my life. But the fame part ... I would look up, see what was going on around me, the reporters and photographers and all, and then I would just go back to making my music.

— Barry Manilow

When it comes to me, I just write the most beautiful music I can, I do the best work I can, and then I hand it out there.

— Barry Manilow

“I stay glued to my piano and my work. I don't look up. I write, I produce, I do the next project, I do my job. I don't look up, and I try to be kind. I try to be kind to people. That's what I do.”

— Barry Manilow

“We've made mistakes,
But we've made good friends too.
Remember all the nights we spent with them?
And all our plans,
Who says they can't come true?
Tonight's another chance to start again.
It's just another New Year's Eve,
Another night like all the rest.”

— Barry Manilow

“I am nervous that the craft of songwriting is taking a nose dive ... And since I'm a songwriter and I connect with an interpretative, you know, interpretation of a song, I miss it. I just miss it.”

— Barry Manilow

“I think my music is like anchovies - some people like it, some people get nauseous.”

— Barry Manilow

“I've been up, down, trying to get the feeling again. All around, trying to get the feeling again. The one that makes me shiver, made my knees start to quiver.”

— Barry Manilow

“I believe that we are who we choose to be. Nobody is going to come and save you. You've got to save yourself. Nobody is going to give you anything. You've got to go out and fight for it.”

— Barry Manilow

“The melody seems to have gone to the country. The country music seems to still have melody and interesting lyrics. But pop music, you've got to really listen hard to somebody who's doing a good melody and a good lyric.”

— Barry Manilow

“Keep your family and old friends around you. That's what I had done and that's what saved my life when it came to being famous.”

— Barry Manilow

I think if Unchained Melody does what I think it can do, I think there is an audience out there that would heave a sigh of relief, that finally there is a melody and orchestration, production and a vocalist that is giving them a song that they can just listen to ... and not be annoyed by the vocal acrobatics that vocalists seem to think is impressive.

— Barry Manilow

“The dark night of the soul for me was one night in Florida, when I had been on the road for about four years and I realized that everybody around me was on my payroll, that my old friends hadn't been in touch with me and my family didn't know where to get me. I was a very unhappy guy and it was because I was really alone.”

— Barry Manilow

“Fame is always a shock to the system; there's no school to go to, there are no books to read, and when it hits you, it's a surprise. You could be working for 10, 20 years and when it finally hits you, you get knocked down.”

— Barry Manilow