A Quote by Count Basie

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel... and that's what I've been doing all my life. — © Count Basie
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel... and that's what I've been doing all my life.
All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.
I got everything I wanted. When I was young in Kansas City, I knew nothing about Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, of all those concert halls, of all those countries. I did not know what it was like to direct a band... All I wanted was to be big, to be in show-business, and to travel...and that's what I've been doing all my life.
I was studying international business and instead of doing what I should have been doing which was studying for exams and figuring out what type of business I really wanted to do I was cooking for all of my friends and reading cookbooks and really inspired by the idea of travel and types of foods around the world and I wanted to cook them.
Life has been a really big whirlwind, but it's been a lot of fun. I travel so much, and I'm constantly doing things that I love, but it's just me.
For years, people have been trying to talk to me about doing a show, and I wouldn't do one because I'm a serious business guy. I'm not going to do a stupid show. So, the opportunity came up with CNBC, and we started talking. It became a real business show. It's educational, people watch it, and it's great for small business.
There is no business like show business, Irving Berlin once proclaimed, and thirty years ago he may have been right, but not anymore. Nowadays almost every business is like show business, including politics, which has become more like show business than show business is.
Most people who go into show business want to go into show business. I wanted to be Porky Pig. That was my goal in life when I was five, to which my mother said, you can't be Porky Pig. You're Jewish! I don't think she realized what I wanted to do with the pig...I didn't want to eat him, I wanted to voice him.
Show business has always been my life. I love it. I've shared the ups and downs. So it will still be my life. It is a big piece of your life because this is all you know. It just seems like it takes you to such great heights in your life.
It is imperative to exercise over big business a control and supervision which is unnecessary as regards small business. All business must be conducted under the law, and all business men, big or little, must act justly. But a wicked big interest is necessarily more dangerous to the community than a wicked little interest. 'Big business' in the past has been responsible for much of the special privilege which must be unsparingly cut out of our national life.
I've done very well in the film business. Whenever I have wanted something, the film business has given it to me. I'm very fortunate. My big problem in life has always been, 'What do I want?'
I've been in rooms where the creator has sold a show and then felt like the network didn't buy the show they wanted. They bought a show they thought they could craft into the show they wanted.
I just wanted to be a good comic and had no sense of show business, but at some point you want the opportunity to write a show about your life.
My stepfather was a producer. I'd always wanted to be in show business. And so when he came into my life and he told my brothers and myself, he said, look, if you want to be in this business, you're all going to have to start at the bottom.
I didn't plan on going into show business. Show business picked me. And it's been fun. One of the best things about being in show business is people think they know me, and they feel like they grew up with me.
I had been drawing my weekly comic strip, 'Life in Hell,' for about five years when I got a call from Jim Brooks, who was developing 'The Tracey Ullman Show' for the brand-new Fox network. He wanted me to come in and pitch an idea for doing little cartoons on that show.
I was told that I don't understand radio, should go into sales and all this. It was only my desire and love for what I wanted to do and what I was doing that kept me plugging away. I never at any time was motivated by an "I'll show them" attitude. Never was I motivated by, "I'll show them," that wasn't it. I just loved it. It was what I wanted to do. I was lucky to learn early in life what I wanted to do, and I knew how to define success, even though by the time I'm 33 I still hadn't had any. I was just on the verge of it, and I'd been working since I was 16.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!