Bebop didn't have the humanity of Duke Ellington. It didn't even have that recognizable thing. Bird and Diz were great, fantastic, challenging — but they weren't sweet.

My future starts when I wake up every morning.

It's always been a gift with me, hearing music the way I do. I don't know where it comes from, it's just there and I don't question it.

I never thought Jazz was meant to be a museum piece like other dead things once considered artistic.

The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.

That's the way you judge a car, man, [good or bad], when you start it up. It's just the same thing. I mean, I drive a Ferrari - not to be cute, but because I dig it. I'd rather drive a ten-year-old Ferrari than one of them new things-they don't go.

Tom Jones is funny to me, man. I mean, he really tries to ape Ray Charles and Sammy Davis, you know. He's nice-looking; he looks good doing it. I mean, if I was him, I'd do the same thing. If I was only thinking about making money.