It (Strayhorn's Compositions) made us all think a little differently about what we were doing

At my age, I realize that my most precious possession is time, and I've got too much unfinished work to do to spend even a minute talking about myself.

He's no Bill Clinton!

Get up from the piano ... Oscar is in the house. Who wants to be at the piano when Oscar is there? Find something else to do.

Creativity is like a muscle

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

Choosing stillness in the midst of chaos is the path toward living in peace.

We never get accustomed to being less important to other people than they are to us.

They transfer the prison, and all of a sudden all this money cuts loose, all these people cut loose.

When you stop a dictator, there are always risks. But there are greater risks in not stopping a dictator.

Your playing small does not serve the world. Who are you not to be great?

So certainly, if we can tell evil stories to make people sick, we can also tell good myths that make them well.

When you grow up in science fiction you grow up in everything! It's the greatest and only field worth growing up in. It's the total field.

I feel like the American years were my apprenticeship for doing a Bond movie.