I grew up certain for a while that I was going to be an anthropologist, until film turned my head.

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.

When people believe that the form is more important than the Truth, they will not find truth, but will stay with form.

... common sense is the one thing that will certainly be wrong.

When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.

Spend a day talking only in rhyme.

I thought that all generations were lost by something and always had been and always would be

God means just what He says and He will do all that He has promised.

Nothing the writer can do is ever enough.

The worst nightmare in the world is a radical Islamic regime with a weapon of mass destruction.

Each mind has its own method. A true man never acquires after college rules.

In the middle of life, death comes to take your measurements. The visit is forgotten and life goes on. But the suit is being sewn on the sly.