The philosophy of jazz represents tolerance, teamwork and inclusion. That's what America is about. The music reflects that.

Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.

I say, play your own way. Don't play what the public want - you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing - even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.

Gazing into the mirror, I saw myself as I was-a black silhouette in the room, a woman whose darkness had completely leaked through.

Sometimes it's to your advantage for people to think you're crazy

The loudest noise in the world is silence.

There are no wrong notes; some are just more right than others.

Trying to explain music is like trying to dance architecture.

Jazz is freedom. You think about that.

Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by... What you don't play can be more important than what you do.

Jazz is my adventure. I'm after new chords, new ways of syncopating, new figures, new runs. How to use notes differently. That's it. Just using notes differently.

Our vanity makes us exaggerate the importance of human life; the individual is nothing; Nature cares only for the species.

Creativity is what makes humanity move. We were created to participate.

Once the business data have been centralized and integrated, the value of the database is greater than the sum of the preexisting parts.

In fact, my popularity seems almost entirely a masculine phenomenon.

Too many bands practice in their garage, play a couple of shows locally, and expect opportunities to appear from the sky. Bands have to push, work, grind, and struggle to make it happen on their own.

Though man or angel judge my life and read it like an open scroll, And weigh my heart, I have judge more just than any—my own soul.

Ordinary performers have giant TVs. Extraordinary performers have huge libraries.

The nation's obligation to her defenders is as old as that defense itself.

In order to have peace, we must first have trust.