Jazz is a state of mind. There's no boundaries.

Jazz is like a big secret club. The mainstream media doesn't pay any attention to it, it's like 1 percent of the music market - no one cares. Why? Because the majority of jazz is old.

When I hear the words jazz pianist, that just means I have the skills to do most things. Because to be a jazz pianist, even to be a bad jazz pianist, you have to be pretty good.

I think there's good music out there. I just think that radio stations don't play it.

There is a modern take on certain things you can do that, to me, is still jazz.

I grew up in church. That's how most young African American musicians learn how to perform. You could be six years old and playing organ or drums in front of thousands or hundreds of people.

A lot of times, jazz musicians try to educate people. What other genre does that?

I'm not really married to the craft of jazz - I'm married to me, and my style, and whatever I produce.

If you really dissect hip-hop you will find a whole lot of Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, Ahmad Jamal, a lot of classic jazz samples in there.

"Cannonball Adderley said, 'First 20 minutes we'll jazz out, then the last hour it's gonna be songs that people paid to see.' Which is why he was driving a Rolls-Royce."

It's the repetitive thing that brings space. That's one of the things I love secretly about hip-hop. Jazz doesn't have that element. It changes every bar, nothing is ever the same.

A person's reputation can be appealing towards others if he or she understands the great values of ethical behavior.

Doctoring her seemed to her as absurd as putting together the pieces of a broken vase. Her heart was broken. Why would they try to cure her with pills and powders?

You are only happy in life if you forget the bad things and focus on the good things

One eye is open to all truth, the other closed to all deception.

All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.

Real beauty is to be true to oneself. That's what makes me feel good.

The great secret of social alchemy is to profit best from each stage in our lives, to gather all its leaves in spring, all its flowers in summer, and all its fruits in autumn.

I do things very impulsively; I don't really like to plan things at all. If I am passionate about something then I will do it.

In the hurdles you have ten opportunities to improve; that's what's so cool about it.

What is actually happening is often less important than what appears to be happening.