The thing of playin' and singin' never bothered me.

I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

Everybody cryin' mercy / When they don't know the meaning of the word.

The things that really matter don't mix with idle chatter.

Ever since the world ended, I don't go out as much

I have no idea what I'm doin'. I've never seen me.

I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.

I'm playin' music for a certain type of person. Fortunately, there are more and more of us. At least there are more comin' to see me than there were 30 years ago or so.

As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.

I don't mind the term functional medicine -- I suppose it's better than dysfunctional medicine.

Chronologically she is twelve but emotionally she is older, and intellectually older still.

People keep asking how anthropology is different from sociology, and everybody gets nervous.

You can't trust girls. When I get a girlfriend I am not going to tell her where I live or work.

every death diminishes us, but those that leave differences unresolved and things unsaid are the most painful of all.

You admire, Vacerra, only the poets of old and praise only those who are dead. Pardon me, I beseech you, Vacerra, if I think death too high a price to pay for your praise.

I had gone to school to work on technique and found it wasn't something that was really worthwhile to me, although it probably was.

All you can do to the past is to never want to be like it.

Walt Disney was my great hero.

Pick the right sized pot, don't pick a pot five times bigger, twice as big.