Everybody in Canada seemed to listen to what they enjoyed, and nobody could tell them what to like, or what was the popular, or what was the In thing. Even today, it is very hard to brainwash a Canadian.

Dancing is very important to people who play music with a beat. I think that people who don't dance, or who never did dance, don't really understand the beat... I know musicians who don't and never did dance, and they have difficulty communicating.

I fluffed off the guy who kept requesting tunes all night, then found out he was the King's son.

Music is the tonal reflection of beauty.

Somehow I suspect that if Shakespeare were alive today, he might be a jazz fan himself.

I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that every time I played, a girl would appear on the piano bench to my left and another to my right.

The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he.