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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Hopes are plants, which need care, love, and irrigation.

If at first you don't succeed, try again.If you still don't succeed, blame someone else.

You are not a burden, an accident, or a mistake. You are meant for amazing things that you can't even imagine for yourself.

I work out every day, and I eat 1, 200 calories. Here's the truth - like I've said to everybody, 'Every diet works if you follow the diet.'

I am drawn to women who are independent and creative, which is problematic because it's a struggle, a competition of careers. There's jealousy.

Don't go away. I don't want to be alone. I can't stand being alone.

A truce to idle phrases!

The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capacity is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad.

Forgiveness lives alone and far off down the road, but bitterness and art are close, gossipy neighbors, sharing the same clothesline, hanging out their things, getting their laundry confused.

It is the members of this business elite . . . that pose the greatest danger to our American way of life. They are the ones who've bought and paid for members of both political parties. . . .