They said Bird played bebop, but Bird could still swing. I've heard a lot of guys play bebop, but they wasn't swinging.

My family was a Christian family. But I had to get to Kansas to play the blues.

It was my first time in Kansas City. In about two or three days I had a gig at a place called The Monroe Inn.

I was listening to all those lyrics and trying to take in everything that was happening. I was completely excited. It was one of the greatest times that I had listening to music.

I had listened to Joe Turner. When they'd book Joe there, I'd play the blues behind him.

. . . woman is a being dominated by the creative urge and . . . no understanding of her as an individual can be gained unless the significance and effects of that great fact can be grasped.

An indefinable something is to be done, in a way nobody knows how, at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what.

Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.

A terrorist can attack any time, any place using any technique and you can't defend everywhere against every technique at every moment.

Physically, man is but an atom in space, and a pulsation in time. Spiritually, the entire outward universe receives significance from him, and the scope of his existence stretches beyond the stars.

What wonderful thing didn't start out scary?

Your history is animal. Your future is divinity. Right now, you are like a pendulum, swinging between the two.

The only thing I can control is how well I pitch.

Even though I like looking good - don't get me wrong - but if I don't want to, I don't have to.

Human beings - they go on being born and dying, dying and being born. It's kind of boring, isn't it?