I was taking chemical engineering. But I went into the army after that. When I came out of the army, I was a different person. I met a lot of good jazz players in the army.

I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

Everybody cryin' mercy / When they don't know the meaning of the word.

The things that really matter don't mix with idle chatter.

Ever since the world ended, I don't go out as much

I have no idea what I'm doin'. I've never seen me.

I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.

I'm playin' music for a certain type of person. Fortunately, there are more and more of us. At least there are more comin' to see me than there were 30 years ago or so.

As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.

if you have to wait for it to roar out ofyou, then wait patiently.if it never does roar out of you, do something else.

she would have got a gold medal in social climbing if it was an Olympic sport

Prayer opens our eyes that we may see ourselves and others as God sees us.

[Out To Sea] was like a dream come true for me, because I got to work with Jack [Lemmon] and Walter [Matthau], who were unbelievable.

We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused -- in place of the verbose, the detailed, the voluminous, the inaccessible.

Sometimes friends are dangerous. We must be very careful about the help friends give us.

There is no partial sensitivity; either it is the state of one's whole being, total consciousness or it is not there at all

Prayer is such a great effort to most of us because we do not pray right.

As long as we're together

One hopeful sign that the filmmakers can learn and grow is that the sequel does not contain a single pie, if you know what I mean.