I was always doing revolutionary things, things that would alert people, so they would stop being so subservient.

Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

I never heard my music played the way I heard it in my head.

I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.

I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

My music is evidence of my souls will to live.

If Charlie Parker were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

Making the complicated simple is true creativity.

Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon.

The only French word I know is oui, which means “yes, ” and only recently did I learn it’s spelled o-​u-​i and not w-​e-​e.

Decide. What you want? Life full of years or Years full of life. NOW.

For the makers, the paintings and engravings were visions, not representations of visions.

Only me, eh? Is that how you see yourself? Only you is worth a good deal more than you think.

Chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered pretzels... Chocolate. So afraid to be alone.

A community which refuses to welcome - whether through fear, weariness, insecurity, a desire to cling to comfort, or just because it is fed up with visitors - is dying spiritually.

For me, the social thriller is the thriller in which the fears, the horrors, and the thrills are coming from society. They're coming from the way humans interact.

Success can only be measured in terms of distance traveled.

The nine inches right here; set it straight and you can beat anybody in the world.

I heard one time that the Superman glyph is the second or third most recognizable symbol on Earth after the Christian cross.