Wayne Newton quotes: Mr. Entertainment’s most shared quotes.
“I believe that fate is choices; it’s not chance.”
“I love taking chances.”
“I’ve always had great faith in people.”
“When you think about those of us that live the life that we want to live, we can thank absolutely and completely our men and women in uniform. Because if it were not for them, we wouldn’t enjoy the freedoms that we have.”
“Las Vegas and I both grew up together, and all of a sudden I was doing things that no performer had ever done before.”
“I’ve literally been working my whole life.”
“I decided to become a musician after my parents took me to see the Grand Ole Opry when I was just four years old. My parents didn’t have a lot of money, so we were in the nosebleed section, and I couldn’t even see the performers onstage. I found myself looking around at the audience, seeing the happiness that the songs and entertainment was bringing them. Unlike many children with similar dreams, though, I proved to be an industrious tyke. I quickly learned how to play piano, guitar, and steel guitar, and by the time I was six I appeared on a daily radio show on my way to school.”
“I started in show business at the age of five. I had a local radio show before going to school. And then when I was eight years old, we had moved to Arizona, and I had a local television show from the time I was eight years old until I was 15. I played Vegas at the age of 16 years old in 1959 and we got hit immediately with six shows a night, six nights a week, and what was promised to be a two-week engagement turned into 52 weeks the first year.”
“Sinatra and his pals took me under their wing because I was so much younger than they were. And they wanted to make sure I didn’t get in trouble, that I didn’t go down the wrong path, or that I didn’t show up in any of their parties. I think that if I learned anything, it was the discipline that they maintained. That really hit me like a ton of bricks.”
“I also received life lessons from another Vegas icon, Elvis. It was more important for him that the people got to see the kind of show they paid their hard-earned money to see than to just be doing things that a producer had written for him to do. He was really very wise that way. Because when you start doing things that other people write for you, you quit doing you and you become them, if you know what I mean. We really became good friends, he was one of the nicest people I’ve known.”
“I have been very lucky to have worked with, and learned from, so many incredible talents. They really took me under their wing and each of them taught me and helped me in so many ways that I could not just pick one. I would not have the career I have without each of them.”
“I was sure I was never going to have a hit record, so I spent my time and energy and effort in working to do the best I could live and on stage.”
“To this day with all of the albums I’ve recorded and released, I still cannot read a note of music.”
“I really don’t know any other way to work. And so I think that the work ethic is something that, when I get asked by some of the younger talent coming on today about the work ethic, I explain to them that that really is, I think—if there’s anything that has helped me to sustain not only my career but my voice and my ability to perform, it’s the discipline that I learned in those years, doing that six shows a night, six nights a week. And I did as many… and I don’t say that in a bragging way, I say it in a humble way—I actually did 36 weeks one time without a day off.”
“I think that kind of education and that kind of discipline is really the answer to any career that is going to be successful.”
“In my view, Las Vegas has become the place to perform versus any other place in the world.”
“Well I think the attraction it brings to me—and it’s something I realized quite early on—that by staying in Vegas, one can also become spoiled, and you think, ‘Okay, there’s no reason to change anything because it’s not broken.'”
“Part of what I do, and I’ve always done, is I want to feel what they are feeling. I want to think what they are thinking.”
“I’m better off working as opposed to lying around. I found that I missed the discipline of work that I was used to doing so much. So as far as retiring, I mean I would leave it before it left me. Meaning, when people no longer find anything interesting or not appealing that I’m singing or doing on stage or television or movies, then I would call it a day.”
“It doesn’t seem to be happening, thank God. But it’s not anything that I dwell on. I’m still able to physically do what I want to do on stage and sound the way I want to sound and sing the way I want to sing and on and on and on. And to be able to walk out and see the happiness that those songs bring people, I think, is what keeps me waking up in the morning.”
“The most comfortable and calm than I ever am in my life is when I’m on stage, and it’s a wonderful feeling. Music means so much to me because I can affect so many people in a way that you couldn’t do any other way.”
“I still enjoy what I am doing so much and the look on people’s faces. I feel like if I can bring them a little bit of happiness that is a good thing. I was given a talent and feel that is what it should be used for.”
“There is nothing quite as fulfilling as doing something you love to do that brings some happiness to other people.”
“I approach every show like it might be my last.”
“I plan to keep at it for the foreseeable future.”
“I’ll just take it as it comes, one day at a time. This is something I love to do and I’ve never looked at it as work. But as they say, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I enjoy doing what I do and as long as people show up, and as long as I can put a smile on their face and maybe bring them a little happiness for that two hours, I can’t think of anything that makes me happier.”
“There’s no room in my life for feeling sorry for myself.”
“Sure, I’ve been a victim, but in retrospect, most of it has been of my own making. I allowed it to happen.”
“If it were not for the bad things that’ve happened to me, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”
“There are people who are surprised at my politics and being a conservative and the rest of it. But the truth of the matter is, to my knowledge, I have never been overlooked or turned down for anything that I wanted to do that was being offered to me.”
“You have to go through those mountains and valleys, because that’s what life is—soul growth.”
“I don’t really believe in regrets.”
“I enjoy my career immensely. I think it’s because I’ve spent my whole life being Wayne Newton.”
“I’ve always had great faith in the Man upstairs.”
“You can take of a man’s money, but when it’s all said and done, you’ve only taken his money. When you take of a man’s time, you’ve taken a part of his life. I’d like to thank you for giving me a part of your life tonight.”
Related: Jerry Seinfeld quotes.
