Jazz is not just 'Well, man, this is what I feel like playing.' It's a very structured thing that comes down from a tradition and requires a lot of thought and study.

it ain't as hard as picking cotton

Jazz is democracy in music.

We looked up to our father. He still is much greater than us.

The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.

Many a revolution started with the actions of a few. Only 56 men signed the Declaration of Independence. A few hanging together can lead a nation to change.

What I really have in my head, my imagination, my understanding of music, I never really get that out.

I believed in studying just because I knew education was a privilege. It was the discipline of study, to get into the habit of doing something that you don't want to do.

Through first-class education, a generation marches down the long uncertain road of the future with confidence.

There are forces all around you who wish to exploit division, rob you of your freedom, and tell you what to think. But young folks can rekindle the weary spirit of a slumbering nation.

Books have a way of finding their way into our lives, usually, right when we need them the most.

Live in the moment that you are in.

The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them!

When we care about people, we sometimes overstep our grounds.

The walls have ears, better think before you throw that shoe.

Well, you know, I played Mufasa in the workshop of The Lion King.

We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.

By statute, Congress has given the president the authority to suspend immigration - any class of immigration if he deems it in the national interest.

I don't read an awful lot of fiction and when I do, it tends to be lightweight stuff.

How beautiful is sorrow when it is dressed by virgin innocence! it makes felicity in others seem deformed.