I never thought that the music called "jazz" was ever meant to reach just a small group of people, or become a museum thing locked under glass like all the other dead things that were once considered artistic.

Some of [drummers] drop time because they want to hear what you're doin'.

The way you change and help music is by tryin' to invent new ways to play

I said to [Lionel] Richie, "Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs."

If you love them in the morning with their eyes full of crust; if you love them at night with their hair full of rollers, chances are, you're in love.

When kids don't learn about their own heritage in school, they just don't care about school... But you won't see it in the history books unless we get the power to write our own history and tell our story ourselves.

Joao Gilberto on guitar could read a newspaper and sound good.