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

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

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.

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

Somebody asked me once, 'Do you think that swing will ever come back?' And I said, 'Do you think the 1938 Ford will ever come back?'

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.

If I could have done anything more, it would have been less