As far as I'm concerned, the essentials of jazz are: melodic improvisation, melodic invention, swing, and instrumental personality.

I went through the whole number, you know. The swing era, the boogie woogie era, the bebop era. Thelonious Monk is still one of my favorites. So a lot of these people had their effect on me.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

Everybody cryin' mercy / When they don't know the meaning of the word.

The things that really matter don't mix with idle chatter.

Ever since the world ended, I don't go out as much

I have no idea what I'm doin'. I've never seen me.

I been getting good crowds. It only took 50 years.

I'm playin' music for a certain type of person. Fortunately, there are more and more of us. At least there are more comin' to see me than there were 30 years ago or so.

I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain.

I haven't stopped and I don't plan on stoppin' any time soon.

I'm starting to think this world is just a place for us to learn that we need each other more than we want to admit.

Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what.

My kingdom not for a horse, but for a good piece of advice!

Melancholy sees the worst of things...[rather than the best]

I'm saying we need to be aware of it, and we need to be able to distinguish when political developments are occurring that are contrary to the public interest.

The long words are not the hard words, it is the short words that are hard. There is much more metaphysical subtlety in the word "damn" than in the word "degeneration."

There are a million talented writers who are unpublished only because they stop writing when it gets hard.

Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs

Health is a consumation of a love affair of all the organs of the body.

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak.