As a bandleader, I try to pass on the same family values that I grew up with: help people, hang on to your sense of humour, be tolerant and keep your judgments to yourself.

Without the piano my life would be a disaster - nobody would hold me in any regard. It's the thing that saved me.

I learned from Van Morrison and BB King that the first take is the best. It's about capturing a moment. It's the same as love's first kiss. If you try to do it again, it doesn't work so well.

It would be great to have Bach in one corner, Bessie Smith in another, John Lennon in another. That's what I'd ideally like. A studio of the dead.

'The Tube' was the first time the plebs had gone on the television. The lunatics taking over the asylum.

Due to my work, I tend to stay in hotels a lot of the time, and I generally prefer smaller hotels, as you tend to get better service than in the larger hotels.

Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller are examples of poets, I think.

A good example of the modern world is the Eurotunnel. And mobile phones - I like them.

I do so much travelling in my work that my suitcase is always packed, with my passport ready. I rarely unpack, as I am constantly on the move.

Naggers always know what they are doing. They weigh up the risks, then they go on and on and on until they get what they want or until they get punched.

To forgive is to be free from past resentment to welcome the dawn of peace.

You must look into people as well as at them.

Harvard was the most intimidating experience. I felt so out of my league there.

Nothing matters at all. Survival is the coin of the realm. Time is a river with banks.

The song seraphically free Of taint of personality, So pure that it salutes the suns The voice of one for millions, In whom the millions rejoice For giving their one spirit voice.

I think I should be a nightclub singer. I love to sing!

I hate to lend a book I love...it never seems quite the same when it comes back to me.

Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate.

An uncontrolled imagination may become as surely intoxicated by overindulgence as a toper may do bodily with strong drink.

When you step on the treadmill, make a commitment. Do, say, 3 miles a day. And don't get off until you finish. It doesn't matter what speed you're going. Just don't get off.