Top 56 Quotes & Sayings by Tom Jones

I've always felt myself as being a serious singer.

I have a weakness for watches. I have to stop myself buying more.

I don't think you can sing about certain things when you're a teen-ager or in your early 20s, because you haven't lived long enough. So I think living gives you character and that comes out in your voice.

I like to drink to suit my location.

Time is my enemy. Time will catch up with me vocally. And I dread that. I dread to think about life without singing.

You can't be a sexy person unless you have something sexy to offer. With me, it's my voice: the way that I sing, the way I express myself when I sing.

I think the first time I ever wore a tuxedo was when I played at the Talk Of The Town in 1967, because it was a nightclub and that was the thing to do.

When I started recording, I thought I'd be able to do all kinds of records: jazz, country, dance - and I've always wanted to do a gospel album.

Winning the Outstanding Contribution award is great, because you know you have won in advance. Previously, I have been really nervous during the ceremony because you have no idea if you are going to get called up on stage. This time I could relax and enjoy myself.

First of all, I love singing. I mean, I get out of bed and I sing. I can't help it.

So when I realised I could sing for a living - do what I loved and be paid for it - I thought, 'This is unbelievable. Unbelievable!' And that feeling has never left me.

I'm a lyric man - I'm always looking for meaningful songs.

I love listening to new stuff, at home in LA I always have the radio on to hear what is happening.

I've tried wearing more than one ring on one hand and it doesn't look good. It's overkill, I think. So I think a ring on either hand. Nine times out of ten I'll go for pinky rings, but not always.

My real name was Thomas Jones Woodward, so I dropped the Woodward.

I got married when I was 16 so I had to do shift-work to make ends meet.

I've always worn jewellery but for a time it went out of fashion. Like grungy and punk bands didn't wear jewellery because it was stupid.

Dean Martin always dressed very well but then he was a good looking fella with a good physique so he could wear anything.

I think teen-age love is a great thing. There's nothing quite like it and never will be for the rest of your life.

I have had some pretty wild nights! I think the media keeps a very close eye on what people are up to these days. I was out with George Clooney a few nights ago and we had a great time.

I come from a coal-mining, working-class background. My father was a coal miner.

Oh yeah, I would have been a coal miner, I would think, if I hadn't had tuberculosis when I was 12.

I think it's good that I had some experience of the real world before I became successful. You know, having to get up in the morning and going to work in construction.

I didn't have to play rugby that well, and I didn't have to play cricket that well, because I had this voice.

I haven't become an American! Having a house in LA is just where the house is. It's just a convenience thing living there. I carry Wales around inside me. I'd consider moving back there one day. I never really left.

Music is great; it all depends on what mood you're in, what you want to listen to. If it's party time, you listen to, you know, party music, if you want to dance with somebody. But then again, if it's a slow dance, you need something slow.

There's plenty for me to do. There are more albums. I'll record as long as I can and as long as my voice works as well as it does now and for as long as people want to hear me.

I've always liked to dance - I've got a natural rhythm.

I didn't like to be restricted, because when you're in a choir, you have a part to sing and you sing it. I always liked singing on my own.

As for the music business itself, the key things have not changed that much. It operates like any business and money still keeps things moving.

When you first start off, I know singers who have only been in the business just a short amount of time, and they've already written their autobiography. I didn't want to write it too soon. I wanted to live a while and write about things that I felt were important to me - growing up in Wales, and the characters that I met and listened to.

I realize that singing is saving my life, once I started again.

I think the people who really love the way somebody sings, they like to hear it. As long as you don't change your style completely or do something that has nothing to do with what you're known for, which I don't agree with.

Elvis was always over the top. That's why he had that gold lamé suit! He designed his jumpsuits himself. He always said, "If you're going to be a star, you should look like one."

It's good to touch the green, green grass of home

You can't lose the essence of a song. I try to enhance it more than anything else.

I was full of fire when I was young. I wanted to attack anything.

I couldn't do the heavy rock thing anymore. Noddy Holder was around kicking every singer in the ***. I never wanted to be a pop singer. Christ, how I hated Noddy!

Try to remember the kind of September When life was slow and oh so mellow. Try to remember the kind of September When grass was green and grain was yellow. Try to remember the kind of September When you were a tender and callow fellow. Try to remember and if you remember then follow follow.

People never talked about my music. They just counted how many knickers were on stage.

There is nothing like the sound of a Welsh Male Choir and the Treorchy is the finest. They have represented the best of the Welsh voice for generations with honour and integrity. They are international ambassadors.

People who go out and do hits year after year after year, I think the fans deserve more than that. The audiences deserve more than just that. You need to give them something new, or things you really love to sing. And they love it.

It is widely held that too much wine will dull a man's desire. Indeed it will...in a dull man.

Pussy cat, pussy cat, I love you, yes I do. You and your pussy cat nose.

Whenever I've been asked to be in a film, directors only want me to play myself... I'm fascinated by the thought of being an actor, but it's too hard. And I think Shakespeare-which has been suggested to me-might be a bit of a stretch.

I want to find out more about how the Backstreet Boys get their incredible sound. I've got both their albums and I would love to cover one of their songs

The Musto Skiff combines the thrill of skiff performance with smooth control and well... it just blows your pants off!

I would want to be known as a great singer; that the records I've made and the performances that I've done to be remembered. But the voice is the most important thing. The showmanship goes along with it. But I want to be remembered for my vocal ability.

You are only a young talent, but we don't know how old your soul is.

It's not unusual to be loved by anyone, it's not unusual to have fun with anyone. But when I see you hanging about with anyone, it's not unusual to see me cry. I wanna' die.

When I was young, I was interested more in (singing the songs). ... I can't say I'm enjoying it more now than I did before, because I loved it when I first sang in Wales, in a pub or a club. I loved it then, getting up and singing. Or as a kid in school, I've always loved to sing. But I think when you've been around a long time, it's even more satisfying to think that people are listening to me now, and I've been in the business for a long time.

Love is in the air everywhere I look around. Love is in the air every sight and every sound.

When I started off in Wales, I sang and accompanied myself with guitar in the '50s. And then I got a band together, which is a rhythm section, really. I used to do a lot of blues, and rhythm and blues, and '50s rock 'n' roll and country, and all kinds of stuff.

Plant a radish, get a radish, never any doubt. That's why I love vegetables, you know what they're about!

Comfort me by a solemn Assurance, that when the little Parlour in which I sit at this Instant, shall be reduced to a worse furnished Box, I shall be read, with Honour, by those who never knew nor saw me, and whom I shall neither know nor see.

I think when you've lived a bit, you read more into the songs. I do, anyway. And you're sort of living the songs rather than performing them.