It was never supposed to be a hit. It was supposed to be a Joe Morello drum solo.

I tried practicing for a few weeks and ended up playing too fast.

Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can't be taught.

The qualities in music which I considered most important - and still do - were beauty, simplicity, originality, discrimination, and sincerity.

Milton, of all people, gave the most perfect definition of the state of mind required to play jazz: ' with wanton heed and giddy cunning.' That's how you play jazz.

I think I had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to sound like a dry martini.

Not for me. If I want to tune everybody out, I just take off my glasses and enjoy the haze.

I would like to thank my father who discouraged me from playing the violin at an early age.

I discovered early in life that if you take gym first period, you can go into the wrestling room and sit in the corner and sleep.

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was.

Our basic audience begins with creaking elderly types of twenty-three and above.

When a family breaks you don't hear the crack of the breaking. You don't hear a sound.

To cry at will is not an easy accomplishment.

Only yield when you must never "give up the ship " but fight on to the last "with a stiff upper lip!"

I love the solitary, romantic idea of writing.

Hillary Clinton was saying Bill Clinton has tendencies toward being sexist.

In Nigeria they convict by law, not by the truth

If someone offers you a breath mint, accept it.

When you've been in the business 5-years, as a person, it's like you're 5-years old - like a child. 10-years and you're 10-years old, 20... Etcetera. That's how I measure maturity in this industry.

If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.

For me to live in a world that is not inclusive of other people who are not Christian would be the opposite of Christianity.