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

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 never thought innovation as such was very important. Not when you have to think about it... If you're going to come up with a new direction or a really new way to do something, you'll do it by just playing your stuff and letting it ride. The real innovators did their innovating by just being themselves.

Freddie Green has been my right arm for thirty years. And if he leaves the band one day, I'll probably leave with him.

If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune.

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

I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .