By and large, jazz has always been like the kind of a man you wouldn't want your daughter to associate with.

Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

Create, and be true to yourself, and depend only on your own good taste.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

Tomorrow is in the wings waiting for you to sound her entrance fanfare.

In music, as you develop a theme or musical idea, there are many points at which directions must be decided, and at any time I was in the throes of debate with myself, harmonically or melodically, I would turn to Billy Strayhorn. We would talk, and then the whole world would come into focus. The steady hand of his good judgment pointed to the clear way that was fitting for us. He was not, as he was often referred to by many, my alter ego. Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brainwaves in his head, and his in mine.

I like any and all of my associations with music: writing, playing, and listening. We write and play from our perspective, and the audience listens from its perspective. If and when we agree, I am lucky.