Making the complicated simple is true creativity.

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.

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

They're singing your praises while stealing your phrases.

A MOTTO OF THE HUMAN RACETell me what to do

...ya can't get to Nevada on five bucks and a bad heart...

A woman should be pink and cuddly for a man.

I support women. I'm like a human BRA.

When I was a kid, I had two great guilty pleasures. One was horror movies and the other was martial arts movies.

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.

When youre the lead actor in a drama, you have 2 1/2 months at the end of a season to do other projects, and everything has to get done in that time.

Stop looking for love and start showing it.

The secret of charm is bullshit.

Concerts every night, autograph signings, endorsements, and so on. That's not what real life is about.