I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I'd heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously - especially the Ten Commandments - and wondering how 'Thou shalt not kill' could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was in my 40s to write what I was thinking as a young soldier.

I played a lot of sports and it's the plays in basketball that weren't worked out that are the ones that are just fantastic that you remember. We don't know the power that's within our own bodies.

Don't be a perfectionist... leave that to the classical musicians.

Damn it, when I'm bombastic, I have my reasons. I want to be bombastic-take it or leave it.

Your mother’s heartbeat is the first sound you ever hear and your own heartbeat is the last.

I started growing up in a hurry and taking a lot of the philosophy I'd heard from church as a kid a lot more seriously - especially the Ten Commandments - and wondering how 'Thou shalt not kill' could be so absolutely ignored. It took me until I was in my 40s to write what I was thinking as a young soldier.

My own Brubeck Institute in California is turning out fantastic young jazz players, and I know great things will happen.