Duke Ellington was famous for hs very original harmonic patterns.

One thing all stage mothers share is an overpowering ambition for their daughters.

Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.

Never trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in God.

There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them.

One time I introduced my orchestra as the Shampoo Music Makers instead of the Champagne Music Makers.

I realized some of the pitfalls of being well-known; it was nice if you were successful, but it made it just that much harder to take when you failed.

I knew nothing of the life of a real musician, of course, but somehow I seemed to see myself standing in front of great crowds of people, playing my accordion.

Night after night I could feel the chills go up and down my spine, they played so well.

Many times I wondered if I were truly carrying out God's plan for my life.

If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come.

No other version, no matter how perfect it is, would ever feel better than being your true self.

If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

Getting rich is not real and staying rich is real.

They say everything you go through in your childhood builds character and inner strength.

Anything that's not positive, I don't have the energy to focus on it. Anything that's not going in the right direction, I don't have the time or the energy.

Ideas control the world.

Drawing is . . . not an exercise of particular dexterity, but above all a means of expressing intimate feelings and moods.

If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible warning." -Gwen Goodnight

Once you spend time with [the afflicted], you start recognizing them as individuals, as opposed to lumping them in with everybody else who might have those symptoms.

As land is improved by sowing it with various seeds, so is the mind by exercising it with different studies.