Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics.

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts.

The only art form that Americans have created that's recognized around the world is jazz music born in a community that had the peculiar experience of being unfree in a free land.

There is no communication in this world except between equals.

You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you get that triangulation is through time.

You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of other approaches.

I think my expectations for myself are much more severe and much more direct. You can't work on a film for six years without being your own toughest critic. So you can't really be distracted by the expectations based on your previous performance.