Jazz is not background music.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

I will search for hidden talents that I didn't know I had and do my best to cultivate them. I am grateful for each day, and I will try to use each day as a stepping stone to greater achievements.

Musical composition should bring happiness and joy to people and make them forget their troubles.

We all have to open our minds, stretch forth, take chances and venture out musically to try and arrive at something new and different.

Basically my influences have been American influences. It's been blues, gospel, swing era music, bebop music, Broadway show music, classical music.

The ensemble playing is as clean as a whistle. The band plays in tune and with dynamics. Also, there is some fine arranging and orchestrating going on here, and the soloists perform at top level.

I personally do not believe in politics, hatred, or anger in my musical composition.

There's no way to be a Christian at home by yourself.

Politeness. Being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.

I could deny it if I liked. I could deny anything if I liked.

It is not good enough to do what the law says. We need to be in the forefront of these [social responsibility] issues.

...Right now there's a pair of bad cops on their way out here to shoot me." "You don't know that." "Yeah, you're right," Stranahan said. "They're probably just collecting Toys for Tots. Now go.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

Very few people are ambitious in the sense of having a specific image of what they want to achieve. Most people's sights are only toward the next run, the next increment of money.

I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me.

Sorrows humanize our race; tears are the showers that fertilize the world.

I'm not thuggin' for me, I'm thuggin' for my family, I pay all the bills, I feed my whole family, wrong or right, I do and I can't stop.