Like a layer on a pearl, you can't specifically identify the irritant, the moment of the irritant, but at the end of the day, you know you have a pearl.

History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.

We're having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's an active disengagement.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films.

I never want you to deny anything about yourself because you have grown up thinking it’s unacceptable or inconvenient for the people around you.

Love emancipates you from prison of envy and jealousyIt makes u invisible to hatred and oblivious of self

I do hope you have some money. I'm getting tired of hitting people.

The Mars Polar Lander has been quieter than George W. Bush after a foreign policy question.

Many people wait throughout their whole lives for the chance to be good in their own fashion.

I think you always have to use certain parts of yourself in any role.

Success isn't one straight line - it's a ladder, and there's always another rung above you to reach out for. Like anything else, there are ups and downs.

We are ultimately alone in that we are ultimately responsible for ourselves.

You completely rediscovered & relived everything to do with wildlife.

Just as no great painting has ever been created by a committee, no great vision has ever emerged from the herd.