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.

Jazz music is a language of the emotions.

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?

My music is evidence of my souls will to live.

Let my children have music! Let them hear live music.

Everything I do is Mingus.

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