Can anybody be given creativity? No. Only equipment to develop it if it's in them in the first place.

Teddy Wilson, I think, said a little while ago that its much easier to come in and play whatever comes into your mind, without obeying any of the laws of bass line and harmony and so on.

I haven't written an awful lot recently, but I think I probably will start again very shortly. Being so much on the road, when you have a couple of weeks off, you're likely to avoid sitting at the piano, and taping, and giving yourself more work to do.

I always tell people, it took me 10 minutes and 35 years in the business. I get tired of playing it ["Lullaby of Birdland"], but not of collecting the royalties.

My affiliation with England is borne out by the fact that I do come back for periodic visits.

Learn the rules and then break them in such a way as to exercise good taste.

You know, when you've established a certain thing, what can you do? You're stuck with it.