Benny Goodman plays the clarinet. I play 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It ["Begin the Beguine"] became such a hit that it superseded anything that any band had ever had.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 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.

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

The good old days are neither better nor worse than the ones we're living through right now.

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

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