Whatever coast he's on, a man should be himself. I don't write in any particular idiom, I write Charles Mingus.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace.

I always wanted to be a spontaneous composer.

I am Charles Mingus, half black man, not even white enough to pass for nothing but black. I am Charles Mingus, a famed jazzman, but not famed enough to make a living in this society.

I always thought that no matter what kind of work people did, they should involve themselves totally with all the discrimination they ran into.

I was always doing revolutionary things, things that would alert people, so they would stop being so subservient.

Most of the soloists at Birdland had to wait for Parker's next record in order to find out what to play next. What will they do now?