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[being Judge] Is About Being Honest And Giving Everybody A Fair Shot And Telling Them What You Think. Sometimes It's Good And Sometimes It Isn't. It's More Important To Be Honest Than Say Things To Make People Feel Better. I Don't Think You Have To Be Rude, But I Think You Have To Be Honest. But I Think It's Really Important To Be Specific: Here's What You Did That Was Great And Why. And Here's What You Did That Wasn't Great And Why.

-Harry Connick, Jr.

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[being Judge] Is About

Harry Connick, Jr.

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[being Judge] Is About Being Honest And Giving Everybody A Fair Shot And Telling Them What You Think. Sometimes It's Good And Sometimes It Isn't. It's More Important To Be Honest Than Say Things To Make People Feel Better. I Don't Think You Have To Be Rude, But I Think You Have To Be Honest. But I Think It's Really Important To Be Specific: Here's What You Did That Was Great And Why. And Here's What You Did That Wasn't Great And Why.

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[frank Sinatra] Was An Incredible Artist, The Best At What He Did, But It Never Occurred To Me To Model My Career After What He Did. There Was No One I Modeled My Career After Because There Was No One Else Who Did What I Did.

I Think A Dad Has To Make His Daughter Feel That He's Genuinely Interested In What She's Going Through.

'the Christmas Song,' By Nat King Cole, Is Not Only A Masterful Performance; To Me It Just Sounds Like The Holidays. I've Never Sung It, Because Nat's Version Is So Perfect. I Gotta Leave It Alone.

My Dad And Mom Believed That You Do What You Have To Do In Private And Don't Make A Big Deal Out Of It. Just Try To Help People As Much As You Can.

As You Work On Something, Whether It's A Painting Or A Piece Of Music, It's Going To Evolve. A Relationship Is Like That Too.

It Is Really Rare To Find Someone You Really, Really Love And That You Want To Spend Your Life With And All That Stuff That Goes Along With Being Married. I Am One Of Those Lucky People. And I Think She Feels That Way Too. So The Romantic Stuff Is Easy Because You Want Them To Be Happy.

To Be A Good Kisser Start Slow, Definitely Ramp Into It And Remember Somebody's On The Other Side Of Your Mouth!

I Like To Jump Some Rope And Swing Kettle Bells To Get My Blood Pumping. It Makes My Voice Sound Better, And It Clears My Head.

Golf Is Good, It Means I Get Some Fresh Air And Exercise, Take My Mind Off Work And See Some Of The Landscape Of The Place I'm Visiting.

If I Keep Striving To Put On The Best Quality Show Based On The Values I Have, I Don't Have To Think "oh We're Crossing The Line" Because The Line Is Built In. We Follow That And Do The Best Quality Work We Can.

I'm A Big Fan Of [frank] Sinatra, He Was The Best At What He Did. The Last Thing I Do Is Model My Career After Him, Though, Because We Do Different Things. He Was A Great Singer And A Great Actor ... It Never Crossed My Mind To Emulate His Career, Because We Have Different Interests.

Everything I Do Is Part Of My Passion.

I’m Really Boring, Man. Like, I’m Really Dull. And I Think People May Think That I Have This Glamorous, Fun Lifestyle, But It’s Pretty Dull. But That’s What I Like.

I Do The Things I Like To Do. It's Sort Of A Bigger Version Of Having More Than One Hobby.

I've Been All Over The World. I Love New York, I Love Paris, San Francisco, So Many Places. But There's No Place Like New Orleans. It's Got The Best Food. It's Got The Best Music. It's Got The Best People. It's Got The Most Fun Stuff To Do.

My Mom And I Were Super Tight. I Think She Really Wanted Me To Be An Artist, You Know? She Used To Like To Tell People She Wanted To Be Beethoven's Mother. That Was Her Thing. She Wanted To Be The Mother Of This Person.

We Have Been Working With Habitat For Humanity And We Have Built Eighty Homes, 80% Of Which Are Being Lived In By New Orleans' Musicians. It Is Called The Musicians' Village And At The Center Is The Ellis Marsalis Center For Music.

Life Is Really Like That: There Are Certain Things That Are Wonderful And Certain Things That Are Not So Wonderful And What You Are Going To Do About It. With Grace And With Dignity, Move Through Them. Deal With Them.

I'm Not Trying To Be Romantic. I Think You Can Tell When People Are Trying To Be Sexy Onstage. When I Was Doing 'all The Way,' I Was Really Thinking About My Wife. People Don't Know My Personal Experience, But They Can Tell It's An Honest Interpretation.

I Only Tour In Short Bursts, I'm Only Ever Away From My Family And Three Daughters For A Month Or Two.

You Know What's Funny? I Don't Ever Feel The Need To Escape. I Have A Strong Marriage. I Like My Life. You Hear About These Guys Having Midlife Crises - I Don't See That Happening To Me.

[when Asked How He's Keeping His 12-year Marriage To Wife Jill Fresh] Hookers, Drugs. We're Playing The Field Right Now.

I Just Liked The Feeling Of Being On Stage.

I'm Able To Sometimes Express Things Even More Articulately On The Piano Than I Am With Singing.

I Don't Really Find Girls To Be Any More Dramatic Or Delicate Than Boys; I've Known Plenty Of Little Boys Who've Had Miserable Breakdowns Over Things... In Fact, I Was One Of Them!

Live Theater Is Just An Incredibly Powerful Medium, And I Think Anyone Who Goes, Whether They Know About It Or Not, If They See Something That Sort Of Fits With Them, It's Kind Of Hard To Deny That They Had A Good Time.

I Have No Doubt That The Government Of This Great Nation Will Work With Its People To Lead New Orleans And The Gulf Coast Back To An Enlightened, Proud, Safe Part Of The World.

[being Judge] Is About Being Honest And Giving Everybody A Fair Shot And Telling Them What You Think. Sometimes It's Good And Sometimes It Isn't. It's More Important To Be Honest Than Say Things To Make People Feel Better. I Don't Think You Have To Be Rude, But I Think You Have To Be Honest. But I Think It's Really Important To Be Specific: Here's What You Did That Was Great And Why. And Here's What You Did That Wasn't Great And Why.

I Used To Go To Bourbon Street When I Was A Kid And There Would Be Club After Club After Club Of People Who Were Around When The Music Started. I Mean These Are Legendary, Maybe Not So Well Known, But Legendary Musicians.

There's Some Things I Can't Write About, Just Terrible Personal Tragedies.

I Had An Old Man Moment The Other Day. I Went Into Abercrombie & Fitch To Get Some Jeans And The Music Was So Loud I Couldn't Stay.

With Imagination, I'll Get There.

All I Really Want - When I Pray , I Don't Really Ask For Anything. All I Want To Do Is God's Will And Make The Best Decisions I Can. I Don't Go Out And Preach.

New Orleans Is My Essence, My Soul, My Muse, And I Can Only Dream That One Day She Will Recapture Her Glory. I Will Do Everything Within My Power To Make That Happen And To Help In Any Way I Can To Ease The Suffering Of My City, My People!

I Just Liked The Feeling Of Being On Stage. My Parents Weren't Pushing Me, They Didn't Have To, I Was Obsessed.

I Struggle Every Day With Trying To Be A Better Dad, A Better Husband, Better Musician, Better Artist. It Consumes Me, And I Don't See An End In Sight.

Marriage Has Made Me A Lot Happier And I'm Deeply In Love With My Wife, And I Thank God For Her Every Day.

When I'm Acting, I'm In A Different Place, Singing Is The Last Thing On My Mind, And When I'm On Stage, There's No Acting At All Involved, Not Even Presentation, It's Just Who I Am.

If Your Record Doesn't Sell That Well, Man, Who Cares? All The Satisfaction I Need... Comes When I Step Out Onstage And See The People. That's Awesome. I Love That.

No Matter What Genre Of Music You Play When You Rack Up A Couple Years Of Experience, You Have Your Own Point Of View No Matter Who It Is That Is Coming In Front Of You Whether It's A Pop Artist Or A Country Artist. Whoever.

All I Can Do Is Worry About Me And My Family. I Don't Really Worry About Anybody Else, They Have To Do What Works For Them

Well, My Dad Was The District Attorney Of New Orleans For About 30 Years.

If You Can Say The Lyrics Almost Like A Poem And They Stand Up, That's A Great Thing. Some Songs Have Great Lyrics And I Don't Like The Melodies, And Vice Versa.

My Dad Is My Hero. He's 85 Now And He Is In Great Health. He Is Handsome And Strong. He Has An Incredible Moral And Ethical Backbone. I Couldn't Have Been Luckier With My Parents.

I Have A Big Ego, And I'm A Confident Person, But When It Comes Down To Being A Jerk, That Doesn't Work For Me, I Tried It... For About Ten Years.

You Know, I Feel As Comfortable In An Uncomfortable Situation As I Do When Things Are Going Smoothly.

Uncomfortable Situations

My Dad Was The District Attorney Of New Orleans For About 30 Years. And When He Opened His Campaign Headquarters Back In The Early '70s, When I Was 5 Years Old, My Mother Wanted Me To Play The National Anthem. And They Got An Upright Piano On The Back Of A Flatbed Truck And I Played It.

I Sing Because I’ve Forgotten How To Scream.

Everything I Do Is Part Of My Passion. I Do The Things I Like To Do. It's Sort Of A Bigger Version Of Having More Than One Hobby. I Love To Play Piano, Sing, And Act. I Love To Do All Those Things.

I Guess Play Piano, You Know, Because That's The Thing I Started Doing When I Was A Little Kid.

Safety's Just Danger, Out Of Place.

I Say Sorry To My Wife About Five Times A Day For Various Reasons.

If You Think Of The Public Lives Of People Who've Been Unlucky, It Seems Showbiz Is Some Tumultuous Crazy World But Some Are Fortunate And Some Unfortunate. All I Can Do Is Keep Striving To Be Better.

Singers, Like Frank Sinatra And Myself, We Interpret The Songs That We Like. Not Unlike A Shakespearean Actor That Goes Back To The Greatest Words Ever Written, We Go Back To The Greatest Songs And Bring About My Interpretation Of Them.

I Think Women Like To Laugh, To Have Doors Opened For Them, To Have A Man Walk Behind Them When They're Going Up Steps, And In Front Of Them When They're Going Down Steps. As Chauvinistic As That May Sound, It's In My Bones.

I Don’t Really Get Shaken Very Much. People Could Heckle Me, A Spotlight Could Go Out, I Could Forget A Lyric... I’m Not Operating On Somebody’s Brain, You Know What I Mean? So I Just Think It’s All Funny.

I Have Worked With Habitat For Humanity For Awhile.

Habitat For Humanity

I'm Gay, It's All A Big Scam. My Kids Don't Even Know Who Their Mother Is.

I Wake Up Everyday And Try To Be The Best Husband, Father And Entertainer I Can Be. I'm No Different Offstage Or Talking To You Or Onstage Than I Am Going To Dinner With My Family. It's All The Same Place And I Apply The Same Values To All I Do. It Works For Me.

The Whole 'american Idol' Way Of Looking At Things Is The Antithesis Of What I Grew Up With. There Are A Whole Lot Of Kids Wanting To Be Famous Now, Whereas If I'd Even Mentioned That Word To One Of My Teachers, I Would Have Got Into A Whole Load Of Trouble.

There Are People Who Can't Stand Me, They Say, 'god, He Makes Me Sick', Or, 'he's Creepy', But It Doesn't Affect Me Too Badly.

I'm Looking At [my Daughter] Right Now. To Think That I Am Her Dad Is The Greatest Honor In The World. She's An Amazing Kid. We Have A Great Relationship And She Is One Of My Closest Friends. I Seek Her Advice. I Like To Know What She Thinks About Things, And She's Helped Me Through Some Really Tough Times. I Just Look Forward To Years Of Developing That Relationship.

You Have To Do Things That Do Good For You And When There's An Uncharted Course, You Have To Figure Out How To Get Through It.

I Love My Wife And I Know She Loves Me. We're Best Friends. We're Just Lucky To Have Found Each Other. It Takes A Lot Of Work But I Just Feel Very Blessed That I Found The Right Person. It's A Very Fortunate Situation And Not Everyone Has That.

You Basically Have To Play Everything (in New Orleans), Because You're Getting Calls To Play Gigs Of All Different Styles, From Classical To R&b To Funk; Modern Jazz To Traditional Jazz.

You Have To Read Scripts And Audition And Develop Relationships. It Takes A Long Time To Develop A Body Of Work But Over The Last 25 Years I Guess I've Done That Many Movies. In Hindsight It May Seem Effortless, But There's A Lot Of Work That Goes Into It.

I'd Like To Move Back To New Orleans.

I Married My Best Friend. And I Listen! Ultimately I've Been Very Fortunate - I Understand That That Doesn't Happen For Everybody But It Happened For Us And We Take It Very Seriously.

There Are More Than 300,000 Families In The Gulf Region That Lost Their Homes And Are Waiting For Peace Of Mind. The Hurricane Exposed The Sad Reality Of Poverty In America. We Saw, In All Its Horrific Detail, The Vulnerabilities Of Living In Inadequate Housing And The Heartbreak Of Losing One's Home.

I'm A Huge Freddie Mercury Fan. I Think He Was The End-all. I Love His Lack Of Inhibition, His Talent, The Chances He Took. He Made Mistakes On His Records, And He Didn't Care.

You Won't Talk To Anybody Who Breaks Lyrics Down More Thoroughly. It's Just A Complete Deconstruction, And When You Start To Rebuild, Nobody Has The Capacity To Do It Like Me. Which Is Not To Say I'm Better, It's Just That There's A Unique Quality To Everyone.

My Life Is Spontaneous And Things Just Kind Of Happen.

I Never Dated Much. I Dated One Girl Before My Wife, And That Was It.

I Mean These People Who Work On Broadway, In My Opinion, Are The Most Gifted Of Everyone. I Mean They Really Know How To Dance. They Really Know How To Act. They Really Know How To Sing. They Know How To Perform.

We Would Like To Get To A Point In Our Society Where People Really Are Colorblind And This Message Would Not Have To Be Told Anymore. Unfortunately, We're Not There Yet.

I'm A Musician. Anything I've Done As An Actor Has Come From That.

A Lot Of The Music That You Listen To Now Is Because Of The Things That The Meters Did, The Neville Brothers Did, And They're There, The Guys Who Invented Those Beats That The Guys Sample Today. Such An Enormous Opportunity.

I've Raised My Girls In A Sort Of Genderless Fashion. I Mean, I'll Take Them To Get Their Nails Done - I Actually Love Doing That - But I Also Play Ball With Them. As A Result, My Girls Are Tough And Athletic And Game For Everything.

It Is Jazz Music That Called Me To Be A Musician And I Have Always Sang The Songs That Moved Me The Most.

I Love Orchestrating Music And Conducting And Being On Broadway.

I Live In Connecticut, But Eventually I'd Like To Move Back To New Orleans. I Grew Up There; The Pace Is A Bit Slower. Plus, I Love Crawfish And Po'boys.

With A Tone So Rich, I Would Never Be Afraid Of The Dark. Steinway Is The Only And The Best!

I Get Terrible Reviews Everywhere I Go.

I Had A Couple Albums Out That Sold Well For Who I Was At The Time And The Type Of Music I Played. People Started Recognizing My Name And Face And It Helped Sell Bigger Venues. I Had A Bigger Spotlight And I Had To Live Up To It But I Thrived Under That Challenge. It Expedited The Creative Process. If I Was On Stage In Front Of 300 People Instead Of 30, I Had To Work Harder At My Performances Because I Had A Greater Responsibility. It Was Very Exciting, But Creative Too.

I'm Sure That There Are Reasonable People That Had Some Reasonable Projections About The Future Of New Orleans, But None Of Those Could Include Not Trying To Rebuild The City And Make It Better Than It Was Before.

I'm Not A Movie Star. People Know Me, But They Don't Necessarily Know What They Know Me For. I Get Recognised, But It's Not Like Justin Bieber. It's A Nice Thing, People Are Cool.

As You Work On Something, Whether It's A Painting Or A Piece Of Music, It's Going To Evolve. A Relationship Is Like That Too. I Don't Have To Think, What Can I Do To Spice Up My Marriage? Because As Time Goes On, She Changes, I Change. I'm Not Married To The Same Girl I Met By The Pool. I Love This Woman More Than I Loved The Person I Married, But Just In A Different Way.

They Don't Make You What You Are, You Do. You Are What You Choose To Be.

Decision Making

[my Mother Is] A Half-chinese, Half-jamaican Woman, Who Grew Up The Ninth Of Nine Kids, Getting A Law Degree From Harvard. Academically Brilliant, But Also Incredibly Strong-willed And Ethical. My Mother Was Like That, My Sister Is, And My Wife Is Too.

Girls Liking Bad Boys Is The Cookie Jar Complex. When Somebody Tells You You Can't Have A Cookie, You Want A Cookie. But I Live In A Bad-boy World, Artistically. All The Jazz Boys Are Bad Boys.

Not Everybody Gets To Record With An Orchestra, And Not Everybody That Gets To Record With An Orchestra Gets To Write All Their Own Stuff.

New Orleans Is My Essence, My Soul, My Muse...

In My Life I Find That Memories Of The Spirit Linger And Sweeten Long After Memories Of The Brain Have Faded.

Many People In And Out Of Showbiz Live Their Lives In Different Ways. I Try To Be The Best I Can Be.

I've Learned That People Latch Onto Labels And Stereotypes. There Was A Period When I Was Asked In Every Single Interview How I Liked Being The New Frank Sinatra... I Think People Will Soon Realize That I Do A Lot More Than Interpret Old Songs.

When I Did The Album For 'when Harry Met Sally,' I Found Myself Out There In Front Of This Big Band, Which I Had No Idea How To Do, And They Wiped The Floor With Me. It's A Very Specific Skill, And I Didn't Know How To Do It.

I Was Raised In The Environment Where It Really Wasn't About Sittin' Around Dreaming All The Time, It Was About Practicing And Workin' Really Hard And If A Dream Ever Came To You, You'd Be Prepared For That Opportunity.

Let's Kick The Tires And Light The Fires, Big Daddy.

I'm A Natural Piano Player. So All The Practicing I Do At This Point Is In My Head. If I Don't Play For A Year, My Chops Aren't Going To Get Any Worse. I've Spent My Time Playing Scales, And I Don't Necessarily Want To Play Any Faster Than I Play. So Everything I Do At This Point Is More Philosophical.

At 14, I Was Playing In Clubs Until 3 A.m. My Dad Was The District Attorney Of New Orleans And My Mother Was A Judge, So I Saw Hookers And Drugs But I Never Wanted That Life.

You Know, Things Kind Of Happen Organically And, You Know, Broadway Sort Of Happened Out Of A Career In Performing And - Which Happened Out Of Practicing Piano When I Was A Kid.

The Reasons I Never Set Out To Do A Talk Show Is They're Formulaic. People Come Out, Tell Jokes And Read Questions. But That's Not What I Do, And We Built The Show Around My Skill Set.

As A Character, You're Working Within The Realm Of What's On The [script] Page.

New Orleans Is A City Of Paradox. Sin, Salvation, Sex, Sanctification, So Intertwined Yet So Separate.

There's An Album By Antonio Carlos Jobim - The Album With 'the Girl From Ipanema.' That's The Most Seductive Music Ever.

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