I like people not being able to be pigeon-holed.

What makes bebop legitimate is the fact that when it was done, it was illegitimate.

The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point.

Bud Powell's probably the biggest influence on my piano playing.

His name, even, is part of the marketing scheme, I mean, Thelonious Sphere Monk - how can you think of a better name to fit his style of playing?

I can imagine an utter hatred for the jazz avant-garde.

People come from a certain generation and a certain whole way of looking at things, and you really do become a prisoner of your own world.

Thelonious Sphere Monk: there's not a more perfect name to fit his compositions than that name.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Business: It is all about generating employment not about generating money.

I think there's a lot more appreciation and maturity and acceptance of everyone's flaws.

Death is the only thing keeping us in line.

You must use the hook of precepts to quickly remove it.

To those who say Ted Bundy should burn forever in eternity I would only say, so should I, so should all of us.

There's more magic in a baby's first giggle than in any firestorm a wizard can conjure up, and don't let anyone tell you any different.

Never give up on your dream... because you never know what the Lord can bless you with.

Make every thought, every fact, that comes into your mind pay you a profit. Make it work and produce for you. Think of things not as they are but as they might be. Don't merely dream - - but create!

[Please let my daughter] not have to wear high heels.