Dance music-as I keep saying, you can dance to a windshield wiper... a windshield wiper that's fairly steady gives you a beat and all you need is an out-of-tune playing 'Melancholy Baby' and you've got dance music.

Benny Goodman plays the clarinet. I play music.

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.

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?

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

I'm not comfortable with categories, and I distrust most definitions. The word 'definition' is based on the word 'finite,' which would seem to indicate that once we've defined something, we don't need to think about it anymore.

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