History is malleable. A new cache of diaries can shed new light, and archeological evidence can challenge our popular assumptions.

We're having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past

I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's an active disengagement.

Do not lose your enthusiasm. In its Greek etymology, the word enthusiasm means, "God in us."

History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films.

I have made all my films for my children with the exception of my first film because my oldest daughter wasn't born when I was making the film about the Brooklyn Bridge.

Life is like an escalator. You see, it carries you on regardless. And you might as well enjoy the view and seize every opportunity while you're passing. Otherwise, it'll be too late.

Your tongue, His name.

Love blinds me so deep and dark, I see the world full of innocence, thoughts filled with affection, time brimming with hope and future flowing with my dreams.

What we often take to be the new is simply the old under some novel form.

Freedom has a cost, which is borne by individuals who make bad choices, and by a society that feels obligated to help them.

Sellout... I'm not crazy about the word. We're all entrepreneurs. To me, I don't care if you own a furniture store or whatever - the best sign you can put up is SOLD OUT.

It was an old, old, old, old lady, And a boy who was half-past three; And the way they played together Was beautiful to see.

We must know the measure of a man's desires before we can sound the depth of his regrets.

I have often found a small stream at its fountain-head, that, when followed up, carried away the camel with his load.

The best security for people's doing their duty is that they should not know anything else to do.