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.

Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.

You've got to find a way of saying it without saying it.

Jazz is a good barometer of freedom.

The artist must say it without saying it.

I'm sure critics have their purpose, and they're supposed to do what they do, but sometimes they get a little carried away with what they think someone should have done, rather than concerning themselves with what he did.

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