Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.

I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.

I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

My music is evidence of my souls will to live.

If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

Making the complicated simple is true creativity.

Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

I think that my ideas of the world are that it's random and cruel but kind of quite comical really, and therefore the humour, in a sense, springs from that.

You have to understand what it is that you are better at than anybody else and mercilessly focus your efforts on it.

We can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy ... I think the system basically is sound. I truly do.

The historian, essentially, wants more documents than he can really use; the dramatist only wants more liberties than he can really take.

It's been said that commitment is another name for success.

I think the NBA players have to be held accountable in a reasonable way, just like any other professionals.

Over the years, many in the public have become numb to news of financial corruption, partly because too many of these stories involve banker-on-banker crime.

You don't need a treaty to have free trade.

One of my favorite stories was Black Orchid, because it was so different from all the others. I especially enjoyed dancing the Charleston. I have always been keen on dancing.