It took me three weeks to write the 'Rhapsody in Blue.' I had always wanted to write something blue and Paul Whiteman inspired.

Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.

Originality is the only thing that counts. But the originator uses material and ideas that occur round him and pass through him. And out of his experience comes the original creation.

Jazz is one of the best things that you can find in your life, it can always be your friend.

I like to think of music as an emotional science.

Look at the piano. You'll notice that there are white notes and black notes. Figure out the difference between them and you'll be able to make whatever kind of music you want.

Jazz I regard as an American folk music; not the only one, but a very powerful one which is probably in the blood and feeling of the American people more than any other style of folk music.

Music sets up certain vibration which unquestionably results in a physical reaction. Eventually the proper vibration for every person will be found and utilized.

I didn't even start playing the piano until I was about 13 or 14. I guess I must have had a little talent or whatever-you-call-it, but I practised regularly, and that's what counts.

Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?

Oh, love isn't there to make us happy. I believe it exists to show us how much we can endure.

You have to make the decision to let go of the past if you want to move forward.

O Lord God

What do you do when you wait too long only to be disappointed? Get on with it my mate, the clocks are ticking and they ain't goin' na pack 'emselves up.

My father was a lesson. He had his own bakery, and it was closed one day a week, but he would go anyway. He did it because he really loved his bakery. It wasn't a job.

What worries me is the professionalism of everything.

The age of hairsplitting Jewish intellectualism is dead... The past lies in flames.

Then it was like a genie out of the bottle and it began to walk all on its own and in directions I did not want.

Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.

Developing a prototype early is the number one goal for our designers, or anyone else who has an idea, for that matter. We don't trust it until we can see it and feel it.