Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.

It's the way you play that makes it . . . Play like you play. Play like you think, and then you got it, if you're going to get it. And whatever you get, that's you, so that's your story.

I got everything I wanted. When I was young in Kansas City, I knew nothing about Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, of all those concert halls, of all those countries. I did not know what it was like to direct a band... All I wanted was to be big, to be in show-business, and to travel...and that's what I've been doing all my life.

I just think swing is a matter of some good things put together that you can really pat your foot by. I can't define it beyond that.

Oscar Peterson plays the best ivory box I've ever heard.

The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

All I wanted was to be big, to be in show business and to travel ... and that's what I've been doing all my life.