Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.

I read cover to cover every jazz publication that I could and in the New York Times, every single day reading their jazz reviews even though I didn't put them in the films. I wanted to know what is going on.

People tend to forget that the word "history" contains the word "story".

We're having a hard time understanding where jazz is going. What happened to jazz?

The reason why you do history, and particularly why you do war, is that you want to make sure that in the next war, some lessons were learned. There's a saying: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Or Ecclesiastes: "What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again." Human nature always superimposes itself - its strength and its frailty over the rush of chaos of ongoing events - and we can perceive patterns and themes and motifs.

The flame is not out, but it is flickering.

There is no communication in this world except between equals.