You have no idea of the women I didn't marry.

'Swing' is an adjective or a verb, not a noun. All jazz musicians should swing. There is no such thing as a 'swing band' in music.

If you don’t see the wonder in the most ordinary phenomenon, you’re not going to resonate very much.

If you wanna dance, a windshield wiper'll do it-all you need is a beat.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose control.

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.

An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

Somebody asked me once, 'Do you think that swing will ever come back?' And I said, 'Do you think the 1938 Ford will ever come back?'

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.

I would just as soon remain jamona than shed that many tears over a man.

I am thinking, ’ he remarked quietly, ’whether I shall add to the disorder in this room, by scattering your brains about the fireplace.

People always knew more than you gave them credit for. Perhaps, in the end, no one had any secrets at all.

Thus the great civilizer sends out its emissaries, sooner or later, to every sandy cape and light-house of the New World which the census-taker visits, and summons the savage there to surrender.

But who bothers looking beyond the surface? Who even knows anything about Cinderella's Prince Charming - other than he's a handsome prince?

Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away

The gentlemen like it when a lady smells sweet.

The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don't ask for their love; only for their fear.

Love is in all of the books, and that's the connective tissue between them. There's a lot of hope in me; I can feel it. These stories are balls of light for me.

Death and blood didn’t turn on a vampire. Fear and the chance to take blood did. There was a difference.