Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Most customers, by the time the musicians reach the second set, are to some extent inebriated. They don't care what you play anyway.

Bach is how buildings got taller. It's how we got to the moon.

Since the white man says he came from the evolution of animals, well, maybe the black man didn't. The white man has made so many errors in the handling of people that maybe he did come from a gorilla or a fish and crawl up on the sand and then into the trees. Of course, evolution doesn't take God into consideration. I don't think people learned to do all the things they do through evolution.

Just because I'm playing jazz I don't forget about me. I play or write me, the way I feel, through jazz, or whatever.

Life has many changes. Tomorrow it may rain, and it's supposed to be sunshine, 'cause it's summertime. But God's got a funny soul, he plays like Charlie Parker.

Making the complicated simple is true creativity.