We were all influenced by Lester [Young]. Listen to the records that he made with [Count] Basie. Nobody's got what he's got. He's still the daddy.

As long as you've got your horn in your mouth, you're developing.

If I can't play music, what am I gonna do? Music keeps people sane. When you enjoy yourself, most of the time the people who are listening to you enjoy it.

If I don't play for a while, it's just like getting hungry.

Music keeps people sane.

I just take a tune and play it the only way I can. That's it. I don't really dwell on it very much. Some people probably do. I can only say I play it the way I feel it.

Ninety-five percent of my audience was white.

My mom would have liked it that I patterned myself more after Jimmy Reed.

We live out our lives as we are meant to live them-with some choice, with some chance, but mostly as a result of the persons we are.

I told them my system was based on the "ant plan," that I'd gotten the idea watching a colony of ants in Africa during the war. A whole bunch of ants working toward a common goal.

I have done so much: modeling, acting, singing, the calendar, the lingerie line, and there have been times where I have wanted to give up but I went for it.

That’s just silly. Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.

If you think a caregiver has an active substance abuse problem, that person should never be entrusted with your child.

To be turned from one's course by men's opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold an office.

I saw more truth and sensitivity in art than I did in many of the people in this world.

Battles are never the end of war; for the dead must be buried and the cost of the conflict must be paid.

God wants to use you to make other people happy! And the happier you make others, the happier you will be because you reap what you sow.

Truth is always duller than fiction.