Jazz is for joy. It's for euphoria, it's for emotion, and anguish, and excitement, and all of the joys that great art can produce, and if it loses that, then it's lost everything.

You've got to have a gimmick if your band sucks.

I hate the idea of turning jazz into homework assignments. I would never have a quiz saying, "Who's the clarinetist on the Hot Five?" I don't care. If you like the clarinetist, you'll know who it is.

Bing Crosby said that Armstrong is "the beginning and the end of music in America," and he wasn't far wrong.

People should not feel intimidated by received wisdom. You have to discover it yourself. If I tell you that Armstrong is great, it's meaningless; you have to hear it.

Humility is a very important trait in a critic.

If you're genuinely candid and expressive then you're never wrong, even when you are wrong.

A lady of forty-seven who has been married twenty-seven years and has six children knows what love really is and once described it for me like this: 'Love is what you've been through with somebody.'

Bob Altman had this relaxed but serious attitude. Everybody loved him. I wanted him to adopt me.

To combat hatred directed toward a person, a Buddhist cultivates loving kindness toward that person.

Let none say, I will not drinke water.

Remember this: Nothing is written in the stars. Not these stars, nor any others. No one controls your destiny.

There isn't anything in the world that can't be made better.

Love is such a confusing word. You think I'm joking but I'm not.

Marriage is like a hot bath; once you get used to it, it ain't so hot.

I enjoy feeling physically strong, so maybe I'd like to be able to lift a building and launch it at someone.

I don't know exactly what a black Chinese restaurant would be, but I would sure love to see one.