You don't think it was because a white man wrote it, a black man wrote it, a green man wrote it. What-doesn't make a difference!

People sometimes forget that jazz was built not only in the minds of the great ones but on the backs of the ordinary ones — ordinary musicians.

And then there's my Grandson: He's certainly got the music together, there's just no question about it.

Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Everybody that you could name would join in our audiences from, Laguardia on down. Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club.

Pass that thing, slightly, lightly and politely.

Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any

What opera isn't violent? Two things happen, violence and love. And other than that, name something else. You can't

A movie and a stage show are two entirely different things. A picture, you can do anything you want. Change it, cut out a scene, put in a scene, take a scene out. They don't do that on stage

We usually never got out of there before four or five o'clock in the morning. Every morning. So it was rough.

A phoenix ain't nuthin' but a burd.

Enjoy the rainbow while it lasts and don't chase it when it's gone.

To be inactive while engaged in activity is the real inactivity (non-doership)!

Every battle is won before it is fought.

Anything that causes you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does.

If you have an informed electorate, it makes great choices.

I like companies that try and break away from the norm.

Chastity is oftener owing to diffidence and shame, than to fortitude of reason or virtue.

I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don't have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya it feels phenomenal.

One must always try to be as radical as reality itself.

What is love? As far as I can tell, it is passion, admiration and respect. If you have two, you have enough. If you have all three, you don't have to die to go to heaven.