I had to agonize over my selection since our music is so rich and all the above plus many others have contributed.

I prefer music where melody, harmony and rhythm come together and no one element overshadows the other. Jazz at its best is a democracy of creativity.

You don't need sunglasses inside a building in the middle of the night.

Jazz isn't as profitable for labels like Hip hop or Rap. Jazz needs subsidies to continue, just like European classical works of Bach and Beethoven are subsidized.

Teaching is learning. When you're teaching full-time you have to do research, stay current.

No matter what a man does, he is not fully sane or human unless there is a spirit of freedom in him, a soul unconfined by purpose and larger than the practicable world.

Do something that scares you every day. You have nothing to lose but fear itself.

Every man born of woman has problems.

Look within, thou art the Buddha.

I fully understand it's important to maintain the separation of church and state. We don't want the state to become the church, nor do we want the church to become the state.

The greatest hardship of poverty is that it tends to make men ridiculous.

Most fashion models do not look good in bikinis because they're too thin.

I don't think I'm more of a screenwriter than I am a fiction writer. I'm more of a reader than a film-watcher, so I imagine that I'm not approaching fiction or films in a particularly cinematic way.

Whenever I have a stubborn position on something, I take a deep breath and swallow myself.

You can't be a minority in this society without having someone express disapproval about affirmative action.