Everyone prays in their own language, and there is no language that God does not understand.

Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young.

Sing sweet, but put a little dirt in it.

There are two kinds of music. Good music, and the other kind.

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.

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.

Hurry, get on board, it's comin', listen to those rails a-thrumming all aboard. Get on the "A" train, soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem.