Kinship doesn't come from skin color. It's in your soul and your mind.

Jazz is about freedom within discipline. Usually a dictatorship like in Russia and Germany will prevent jazz from being played because it just seemed to represent freedom, democracy and the United States.

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

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

When I was 20, Shostakovich was my favorite composer. I still find his Fifth Symphony wonderful, with its outstanding themes and rhythms. That's the piece that made me want to be a classical composer.

I prefer no one to teach me. I prefer to swing on my own.

Jazz stands for freedom. It's supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don't be a perfectionist - leave that to the classical musicians.