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.

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

There's such a cynicism about the phrase 'I laughed all the way to the bank.' It's as though money is what you're doing, rather than playing music. If you're playing a money game, why not get into banking?

I was really running a music school back then, because my band wasn't making any money. I keep talking about money, because most people don't understand the part of money in running a band.

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

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

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