Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.

Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.

Damn it, when I'm bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic-take it or leave it.

Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

The secret of a great melody is a secret.

I'm always hoping for the nights that are inspired where you almost have an out of body experience

Jazz is about freedom within discipline.

Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.

We don't know the power that's within our own bodies

I can't believe in something that doesn't believe in me!-Salvation

A good intention feeds no one.

Hope: A pathological belief in the occurrence of the impossible.

Lord, I fashion dark gods, too, Daring even to give You Dark despairing features

Break open A cherry tree And there are no flowers; But the spring breeze Brings forth myriad blossoms.

If you had two pair of jeans, four shirts, you were cool if you had a couple pair of kicks that were fresh. That was it. That's how it started.

Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control.

The longer the war drags on, more and more civilians are getting killed.

We're all taking on too much, we're all asking too much of ourselves. We're all wishing we could do more, and therefore just doing more.

I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.