You have no idea of the women I didn't marry.

Jazz was born out of the whiskey bottle, was raised on marijiana, and will expire on cocaine.

Listening to Benny [Goodman] talk about the clarinet was like listening to a surgeon get hung up on a scalpel.

I can't understand guys who just have to have your autograph. What do you do when you get home, take it out & look at it?

Benny Goodman plays the clarinet. I play music.

People ask what those women saw in me. Let's face it, I wasn't a bad-looking stud. But that's not it. It's the music; it's standing up there under the lights. A lot of women just flip; looks have nothing to do with it. You call Mick Jagger good-looking?

You run into a party and [a] woman comes up to you. She's the most beautiful creature you ever saw - Ava Gardner - and says, "I like you and why don't we get together?" What are you going to say, "No"? You'd have to be an idiot. She was an incredible creature.