I think as long as people are around and can hear a record and hear people like Lester Young on a recording, there will always be a great inspiration for somebody to try to create jazz.

Music represents nature. Nature represents life. Jazz represents nature. Jazz is life.

Jazz is the type of music that can absorb so many things and still be jazz.

No one is original. Everyone is derivative.

I think music should be judged on what it is. It should be very high and above everything else. It is a beautiful way of bringing people together, a little bit of an oasis in this messed-up world.

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

I feel that Jazz improvisation is the ultimate. You have to create on the spot, the essence of this music.

I miss playing with Miles. I did play with him a little while before he left the planet, but even at that time I longed to maybe do some things together.

It's all about creation and surprise. It just needs to be appreciated and watered like flowers. You have to water flowers. These peaks will come again.

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress...so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

I'll know when I find the ultimate sound.

We ought to give each other, a chance to change.

We do not need to teach our children how to fight. We need to teach our children the miraculousness and transientness of life.

As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of a successful mode of living. The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us.

When you can impress your mom by saying you've been to someone's concert, you know you're pretty lame.

From adversity we can learn the value of patience.

Europe cannot confine itself to the cultivation of its own garden.

P.P.S. I am giving you telepathic hugs. P.P.P.S. But not in a telepathically lezzie way.

He who wants to learn true humility should reflect upon the Passion of Jesus. (267)

Maybe the songs that we sing are wrong, Maybe the dreams that we dream are gone, So bring it on home and it won't be long, It's getting better man!

If you had to name one particular person to blame it would have to be one of the players