There is an apprenticeship system in jazz. You teach the young ones. So even if the musicians weren't personally that likable, they felt an obligation to help the younger musicians.

Most of what I listen to now is mainstream jazz from 1935 right up to and including early bebop and cool jazz.

Honesty is the cruelest game of all, because not only can you hurt someone - and hurt them to the bone - you can feel self-righteous about it at the same time.

If you look at music, you see theme, variation, you see symmetry, asymmetry, you see structure, and these are related to skills in the real world.

My uncle and my grandfather both worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

I think I have more in common with a carpenter than you might think. We're putting things together.

God has a way of telling you when to change your strings.

You can't be afraid of failure and you can't be afraid of success, because either one gets in the way of your work.

When you're working in front of an audience, you have incentive to excel.

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

If I do a piece in my living room, if I practice it - and I have the tapes to prove this - it's not going to be as good as doing the same piece in front of an audience.

By studying, understanding and do the wills of the book, you renounce your mortal life.

Good strategy, keep the conversation going until a guard notices the bodies outside the door. Maybe bursts in to save you. Not a bad idea.

The most dangerous follower is the one whose defection would destroy the whole party: hence, the best follower.

The point isn’t to live without any regrets. The point is to not hate ourselves for having them.

Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut, and don't ask an academic if what he does is relevant.

And then at the end of the day, the most important thing is how good are you at risk control. Ninety-percent of any great trader is going to be the risk control.

The theory of war as an apt and proportionate means of solving international conflicts is now out of date.

I think I try to speak to the heart of the woman who I know is interested in growing into herself.

HB-Shizzle's gonna be honest with ya, okay. To hit these bad boys, you have to have pinpoint accuracy.

The very beautiful rarely love at all; those precious images are placed above the reach of the passions: Time alone is permitted to efface them.