If you asked anybody in my family, they would have very stridently proclaimed themselves middle class. My mother and father were separated, so he doesn't count.

God has a way of telling you when to change your strings.

I'm an exhibitionist, I was an exhibitionist as a kid.

And then adds with a laugh, 'but in retrospect I think he may have been more sophisticated than we were.'

I cut myself off from the mainstream of jazz. It stood me in good stead later on, as a musician.

I'm a very, very stubborn man.

When you're working in front of an audience, you have incentive to excel.