When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.

I can understand why some of these drummers and bass players become cult figures with all of their equipment and the incredible amount of technique they have. But there's very little that I think satisfies you intellectually or emotionally.

By its very nature, no one person can ever be the center of Jazz.

I don't think that there has been a film that I've done that hasn't been influenced by libraries and archives.

Do something that will last and be beautiful. It doesn't have to be a bridge-or a symphony or book or a business. It could be the look in the eye of a child you raise or a simple garden you tend. Do something that will last and be beautiful.

There is no communication in this world except between equals.

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?