I'm improvising all the time. Everything I do is improvised. On the piano, at least.

The thing of playin' and singin' never bothered me.

There's a few tunes of mine that don't have jokes, but most of them have a joke and they have a humorous point of view somewhere.

You always want to write the perfect song. But no one will ever write the perfect song, I guess. I would just like to write on that has all the elements of what I'm tring to do. And I'm working on it. I'm always working on it.

If it's worth remembering, I'll remember it. If something keeps coming back, if I keep thinking of that phrase, if I see manifestations of it at different times and different places, then I feel it's worth making a song out of.

I'm always storing away phrases and ideas and things that I think might turn into songs.

My main influences have always been the classic jazz players who sang, like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole and Jack Teagarden.