The spirit of jazz is the spirit of openness.

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music.

Don't be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That's where the joy and the adventure lie.

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

Music is the tool to express life - and all that makes a difference.

Forget about trying to compete with someone else. Create your own pathway. Create your own new vision.

I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn.

You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom.

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

The most valuable things in life are priceless. They are courage, compassion, wisdom, respect for ourselves and others, and a host of characteristics that we call the beauty of the human spirit.

Jazz is about being in the moment.

When he said to give him the sword, I don’t think he meant for you to stick it in his guts.

A humble man rises to great heights and an arrogant man falls deep into the pit he tries to dig for others.

Security is a kind of death.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend.

I never thought we'd ever have a black president. President Obama has done such a tremendous job He just has been unable to get what he needs to be moved at the level it should be moved.

And I was ashamed of myself for feeling like I had to do that in order to look a certain way. I felt misshapen, just not natural anymore. And I think it was a big stimulator of my drug use.

I tell you, Heaven is a real, literal, physical place, a city as material, as physical, as literal as Chicago or London or New York or Tokyo.

I was reared a Catholic but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What's it all about?

They say it's good to let your grudges go, but I don't know, I'm quite fond of my grudge. I tend it like a little pet.

The problem with trading dominant players of that size is you never get in return what you've bargained away.