Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.

History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.

We're having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's an active disengagement.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films.

She had gambled with marriage, just like most people, but she had gambled unluckily and had lost.

Only a meditator is able to die consciously as life is an opportunity to prepare for death. Meditation is a death, a death of the ego.

If your comfort zone is misery, it's time to get uncomfortable.

It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout.

No amount of trying to inhale one more shred of inspiration is going to make it any easier to put your heart and soul out there.

I'm not stingy. I'm just afraid of being an easy mark. People wouldn't have money long if they didn't ask how much things cost.

Forget the last shot. It takes so long to accept that you can't always replicate your swing. The only thing you can control is your attitude toward the next shot.

You need more than a beginning if you're going to start a book. If all you have is a beginning, then once you've written that beginning, you have nowhere to go.

I assumed the amount wouldn't be detectable. I also didn't feel that I had done anything wrong.

Kids like my act because I'm wearing nose glasses. Adults like my act because there's a guy who thinks putting on nose glasses is funny.