Ellington is a writer and arranger, as well as a musician and leader. He does movie sound tracks.

My juices needed restoring. I needed a sabbatical from the record business.

To play today in London, next week in Madrid and the week after that in Warsaw is a bit better than playing Newark and Baltimore and Philadelphia. I've been doing that for 20 years.

Amsterdam must have more than a million people. But the only area where jazz is really profitable and successful in an economic sense is in Japan. That's because they haven't been exposed enough.

Sponsors and networks will really go all out and simply evaluate people on the basis of talent.

Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts.

If you don't get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don't look back.

There are very few groups that really stay together. The leaders of groups make enough money to be able to afford to work a maximum of 35-40 weeks a year.

If I were to put on Barbra Streisand and Duke Ellington, one might say the combination isn't good.

I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

Germany is probably the richest country in Western Europe. Yet they wouldn't take any television with Duke and Ella, their reaction being that people weren't interested in it.

There is an innate and strong desire in every human being to be heard.

My dear, treacherous mother, ” he breathed. “What have you done?

I'm not that much into working out. My philosophy - no pain no pain.

I see upon their noble brows the seal of the Lord, for they were born kings of the earth far more truly than those who possess it only from having bought it.

You would think that with ten super-famous people in one movie, it's gonna be ten times more popular or viewed, but on some level, they can cancel each other out.

I don't mean he missed him, but he just didn't get him when he put the tag on him.

Peace through superior firepower.

You know when Jerry Ford gets the best joke, you know you're in trouble.

In an undertone, I murmured, "This isn't over. I won't give up on you." "I've given up on you," he said back, voice also soft. "Love fades. Mine has.

I'm a tomato freak, but sometimes you have to get it in ketchup form for people to be able to open to tomatoes.