“”My Girl” wasn’t written with any girl in mind – it was written with all the women in the world in mind.”Smokey Robinson (484)

“Yeah, it’s a cheating song, but it wasn’t autobiographical. I only recently heard that it might have inspired John Lennon to sing, “I’m crying…” in “I Am the Walrus”.”Smokey Robinson (484)

“I wrote “More Love” for Claudette [his first wife and a founding member of the Miracles – Ed] because we had several miscarriages at the time. I wanted to reassure her that I was cool no matter what happened, because I still had her.”Smokey Robinson (484)

“Stevie Wonder approached me in 1966 and told me he had a track he’d recorded but he couldn’t think of a song to go with it. That opening riff reminded me of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, and old circus melody, so I wanted to write about the circus. I didn’t want to write about animals or trapeze artists. I wanted to write something heart-wrenching. When I was a kid, I heard a story about Pagliacci, who used to make everybody happy, then he would go back to his dressing room and cry because he didn’t have the love of a woman. So “Tears Of A Clown” is a personalized version of Pagliacci’s life.”Smokey Robinson (484)

“All my life I’d known the story of Pagliacci, the most famous clown there’d ever been. Yeah, sure. What was it about him that was profound, though? He went out in the ring and he made everybody laugh. He was the joymaker. But then – the show’s over, he goes to his dressing room and he cries. He doesn’t have a woman. Everybody loves him as Pagliacci the clown, but he doesn’t have someone who loves him as a man.”Smokey Robinson (809)

“Stevie Wonder came to me at a Motown Christmas party and he said, “I’ve got this track, man, and I know it’s a smash.” A lot of times in those days, a guy might have a great piece of music but no words for it, and they’d get with somebody who could help, and vice versa. So I took the tape, brought it home, and I started to listen to it. I heard the circus in it. That melody is from the circus. The track was so driving and killer. I wanted to write something about the circus that would touch people’s hearts. And so I thought about Pagliacci. He was the clown who made everybody laugh, and then he’d go back to his dressing room and he’d cry because nobody really loved him as a man. They loved him as a clown, but not as a man. He didn’t have a woman. So I wrote the song about him.”Smokey Robinson (810)

“I left the Miracles in 1972 and took a job as a vice president of Motown. After three and a half years I was miserable. So “Quiet Storm” was my move back into show business. I figured I was a quiet singer, and I said to myself, “I’m gonna change my imagery and my vocal sound and I’m gonna take it by storm – quiet storm!””Smokey Robinson (484)

“This song is about taking a love bath with your woman or your person. My wife [Frances, his second wife, whom Robinson married in 2004 – Ed] and I do that.”Smokey Robinson (484)

“Well, touch it has a double connotation as far as I’m concerned. I know when Berry [Gordy Jr., Motown chairman – Ed] heard the song when I was working on it, he said, “Well, what do you mean by ‘touch it, touch it’?” It means touch the sky, but actually “touch the sky” doesn’t literally mean “touch the sky”; it means, if you come with me, and we love, and you and I are together there we’re gonna love, and we’re gonna be so high on this love until we’re touchin’ the sky, not with our fingers but with ourselves. So that’s what that means.”Smokey Robinson (811)

“I just had a conversation with some people the other day, about what did ‘Cruisin” mean. ‘Cruisin” means whatever you want it to. Whatever it means to you, that’s what it means. “I love it when we’re cruisin’ together.” Now what does that mean to you? It means so-and-so. OK, that’s what it means.”Smokey Robinson (811)

“A song should hang together in the way you portray it for people. But it’s often a good thing if you fade out to leave the listeners to make their own conclusions. A little mystery or ambiguity is no bad thing. That’s instinctive a lot of the time. But there have been many times when I’ve done it on purpose. I call those “mind songs”. I’ll leave the conclusion up to the listener. ‘Cruisin’ is one of those songs. After all these years I still get people coming up to me debating what “cruising” means. Some people have bets with each other about what the word means. Is it about driving? Is it a gay song? Is it about sex? I always say to them, “It meant whatever you want it to mean.””Smokey Robinson (812)