Jazz is about the only form of art existing today in which there is freedom of the individual without the loss of group contact.

Concord, California was a great place to grow up.

There are a lot of people on the lowest rung of Jacob's Ladder, and we must somehow reach down, give them a hand, and make them want to climb. A little really good music never hurt anyone. And when people are given good music they can grow spiritually and even discover they like it.

It's like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

Every individual should be expressing themselves, whether a politician or a minister or a policeman.

You have to be taught to hate.

I’m beginning to understand myself. But it would have been great to be able to understand myself when I was 20 rather than when I was 82.