I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

My juices needed restoring. I needed a sabbatical from the record business.

To play today in London, next week in Madrid and the week after that in Warsaw is a bit better than playing Newark and Baltimore and Philadelphia. I've been doing that for 20 years.

Amsterdam must have more than a million people. But the only area where jazz is really profitable and successful in an economic sense is in Japan. That's because they haven't been exposed enough.

Sponsors and networks will really go all out and simply evaluate people on the basis of talent.

Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts.

If you don't get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don't look back.

There are very few groups that really stay together. The leaders of groups make enough money to be able to afford to work a maximum of 35-40 weeks a year.

If I were to put on Barbra Streisand and Duke Ellington, one might say the combination isn't good.

Germany is probably the richest country in Western Europe. Yet they wouldn't take any television with Duke and Ella, their reaction being that people weren't interested in it.

The whole reason for Jazz at the Philharmonic was to take it to places where I could break down segregation.

Dance with your own way with your own tune no matter who watches it.

I don't know if my faith stems from what I'd call unconditional love, but the energy certainly feels boundless.

I have never felt bereft of anything.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

The United States stands willing to work with a transformed Palestinian Authority with new leaders coming to the front.

Anything done for the first time unleashes a demon.

Never buy gold, simply earn it

I'm one of the few people who understands how producing technology requires intuition and creativity, and how producing something artistic takes real discipline.

Certain people are for me and certain people are pro me.

I've always believed that service to others is rent we pay for our time on this planet.