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

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.

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

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.

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.

I live by grace, in the light of God.

What a pity human beings can't exchange problems. Everyone knows exactly how to solve the other fellow's.

Strong-willed heart, always makes me feel so touched. It reminds me about some 'fall and rise again' in my life.

In your Curled petals what ghosts Of blue headlands and seas, What perfumed immortal breath sighing Of Greece.

Life is beautiful. Cherish every moment even if you're stressed or hurt or whatnot. There's always tomorrow and it always gets better

Fiscal responsibility and government reform are going to be good themes for governing, well at any time, but particularly coming out of a recovery.

Men are least safe from what success induces them not to fear.

Because I'm not writing all the time (thank goodness), my mind is sometimes pleasantly blank.

Often things are as bad as they seem.

My hair was growin' too long, so I got me a fade And when my dishes got dirty, I got cascade And When the weather was hot, I got a spot in the shade.