An entertainer pleases others while an artist only has to please himself.

I wanted to resign from the planet, not just music. It stopped being fun with success. Money got in the way. Everybody got greedy, including me. Fear set in. I got miserable when I became a commodity.

I did all you can do with a clarinet. Any more would have been less.

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.

The distance between me and Benny [Goodman], was that I was trying to play a musical thing, and Benny was trying to swing. Benny had great fingers; I'd never deny that. But listen to our two versions of 'Star Dust.' I was playing; he was swinging.

An audience is in many respects no more than a mob under loose control.

An artist should write for himself & not for an audience. If the audience likes it, great. If not, they can keep away.