They tried to get me to hate white people, but someone would always come along & spoil it.

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.

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.

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances.

So many things people say may seem so good and right

All our acts have sacramental possibilities.

Gypsy was the name my brother gave a pet turtle he had. I always thought it was so peculiar.

Failure isn't an option. I've erased the word fear from my vocabulary and I think when you erase fear you can't fail.

I know that my works are a credit to this nation and I dare say they will endure longer than the McCarran Act.

In basketball, you can be the greatest individual player in the world and still lose every game, because a team will always beat an individual.

The effect of every burden laid down is to leave us relieved; and when the soul has laid down that of its faults at the feet of God, it feels as though it had wings.

I met Sable when she was 15 and I was 18. I sent her home to New York while we carried on the tour. When we got back the police were looking for her at the airport and everywhere!

When nothing upsets you, you are at the beginning of the path. When you desire nothing, you are halfway on the path; when nothing becomes everything, you are perfected.

Why am I the way I am? Well, I used to be different.