Freddie Green has been my right arm for thirty years. And if he leaves the band one day, I'll probably leave with him.

Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

Learn to deal with the valleys and the hills will take care of themselves.

It's the way you play that makes it . . . Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.

If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .

Keep on listening & tapping your feet.

I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.

Your memories are you. There is, it seems, no other You.

When the tears were gone I washed my face and walked back to the store to finish my shopping. Because even when your heart is breaking you still need bread and Rice Krispies and orange juice.

I have a son, but I've never had a daughter. I have a sister, and my sister had a fairly tempestuous relationship with my dad when she was young, and that was gripping and sometimes upsetting.

It seems you don't approve of the family business Katerina. Or of me. But these chances you take... These things you do... This is a dangerous life to live... alone.

When something has been perfect, there is a tendency to try hard to repeat it.

Oh, do you want protectionism? No, I don't. I just don't want to give my country away to China.

Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.

The writer after all is only half the book, the other half is the reader.

You reason colour more than you reason drawing Colour has a logic as severe as form.

In truth, he who is not content with what he has would not be content with whatever he acquires.