In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?

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.

There is no limitations except those we create for ourselves

There's nothing quite so irritating to an author as a family member's easy confidence that, of course, the book will come.

I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I work with the Mexican people all the time. Great relationships.

Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.

Colour itself is a degree of darkness.

You can call your turkey organic and torture it daily.

There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other

Love is a bridge over the sea of change. Do not build a house on it.

Pre-state societies were far more violent than our own.