Sammy Davis Jr. Quotes

My life started on the banks of the Boyne in County Meath. Navan is the name of the town; only me, Mom, Dad.

My mom took me to a Dolly Parton concert when I was 3.

From a very young age, I was singing and acting and performing for my family.

My dad has always been a big Ray Charles fan, and I've grown up listening to all kinds of music.

My stage name is actually my nickname given to me by my dad when I was a baby.

When I watch 'Glee', it reminds me of my upbringing.

The happiest years of my mother's life were spent in Washington, D.C. It was where she met my father, where John was born and where I spent my earliest years.

I grew up on films.

I remember tap-dancing and singing in front of the TV when I was a kid, telling my dad to stop watching Ed Sullivan or Milton Berle and watch me.

My family moved to Buffalo, New York in 1940 where I was raised.

My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere.

My mom moved up between Leland and Greenville when I was just a little tot.

I'm most at home on the stage. I was carried onstage for the first time when I was six months old.

St. Louis has always been special to me.

My father was a motor mechanic, and my mother a homemaker. We moved to Bath when I was four, and so I consider myself a Bathonian.

I had a Jackson 5 wig that I would wear around, and I would do, like, the dances from the Jackson 5, and, you know, my mother thought that was hysterical. So of course, that seed got planted very early, the physicality of comedy.

I always try to entertain folks with good clean fun and stories from my youth.

My grandmother taught me to knit, and as I knit, my mind returns to my childhood.

I've known I wanted to do this ever since I was a little kid and I used to get in trouble at church for goofing off all the time: mocking the preacher, imitating people and the things they did. I later learned my mother used to be just as goofy as I was when she was younger. I mean, Eddie Murphy in 'Coming to America?' My hero.

I was raised on pop music.

When I was young and growing up in New York, my parents took me to children's theater quite often - elaborate presentations of 'Goldilocks' and 'Rapunzel' for Upper East Side kids. As I grew older, they took me to adult theater, mostly musicals.

Whenever I'm in Glasgow I go and stand outside the front of the house I grew up in, which is in Mount Vernon.

As a child, I always remember our home, which was a flat just on the Barnes side of Hammersmith Bridge in London, buzzing with actors such as Patrick McGee and Peter Bowles. We were a family who were always on the go.

I was born in Nagpur and brought up in Ahmedabad, where my father had a small factory.

I love Southeast Asia. As a child, I lived in that part of the world. My first time in Burma was in 1958 with my parents.