God has a way of telling you when to change your strings.

Most of what I listen to now is mainstream jazz from 1935 right up to and including early bebop and cool jazz.

Honesty is the cruelest game of all, because not only can you hurt someone - and hurt them to the bone - you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time.

If you look at music, you see theme, variation, you see symmetry, asymmetry, you see structure, and these are related to skills in the real world.

My uncle and my grandfather both worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

I think I have more in common with a carpenter than you might think. We're putting things together.

You can't be afraid of failure and you can't be afraid of success, because either one gets in the way of your work.

When you're working in front of an audience, you have incentive to excel.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren't personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians.

If I do a piece in my living room, if I practice it - and I have the tapes to prove this - it's not going to be as good as doing the same piece in front of an audience.

Her mouth connected with his. Everything inside her collapsed and was constructed, simultaneously.

They say the eyes are the apertures to the soul. If that is so, I feared Locusta's soul was far darker than even Nero's.

I had gotten so used to being alone, but never entirely used to it. Never used to it enough to stop wanting the alternative.

They were still all beautiful and there was still enchantment and wonder, but she had crossed a line and now the fairy tale was green with corruption and evil.

When your dreams are close to coming true, it does not feel real at first.

The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.

I'm the world's expert on sterotypes held by academics about athletes and held by athletes about academics. To me, both of them are caricatures.

The Bush Administration claims there is a Social Security crisis only to distract Americans from its serious mismanagement of the federal budget.

Time discovers truth.

I make the game easy. Double and triple me, I'll kick it out to you for a wide-open shot. I'll add years to your career.