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.

It ["Begin the Beguine"] became such a hit that it superseded anything that any band had ever had. It was the first time that a so-called swing band played something melodic and still gave it a beat.

I like the music. I love it & live it in fact. But for me the business part of music just plain stinks.

If you don’t see the wonder in the most ordinary phenomenon, you’re not going to resonate very much.

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

I think that band [Glenn Miller] was the beginning of the end. It was a mechanized version of what they called jazz music. I still can't stand to listen to it.

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?