Always sing below your potential..

The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human fai….

The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human faili….

Instead of speaking saintly words we must act them..

At first I didn't understand what [Thelonious Monk] was doing, but I went back again, and what I can say about Monk is that I heard ancient Africa in….

It is not customary to love what one has..

No one places any trust in the words of the Americans..

They tell me Wagner's music is better than it sounds..

Whatever everyone else has asked you to do or never let you do, and let's do that..

Religion is a byproduct of fear..

Never lose the groove to find a note..

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself..

Women are the life force we look at for their beauty..

At this time the fashion is to bring something to jazz that I reject. They speak of freedom. But one has no right, under pretext of freeing yourself,….

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beauti….

Yes, fractals are what I want to find in my music..

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule..

We cannot make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free..

I have so much more confidence in myself now than I ever did before..

I've been racketeered on..

You must understand, I don't have to be happy to be happy..