I'll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I'd never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I'd never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn't much like it at first.

I think the band can really swing when it swings easy, when it can just play along like you are cutting butter.

I don't dig that two-beat jive the New Orleans cats play. My boys and I have to have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating.

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.

If you find a note tonight that sounds good, play the same damn note every night!

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

Keep on listening & tapping your feet.