I don't sit down to write a song; they just come to me from something that somebody says, or something in the news. The punchline comes to me, and I go over it in my head and get the song form. I hadn't been doing that a lot.

I do some concerts. At the moment, I'm being helped a lot by a gig I play in London, which is Pizza Express.

All the classic jazz players all sang and a lot of 'em sang blues.

My dad was a self-taught stride piano player. The myth is - I don't whether it's true or not - that he taught himself to play by watching a player piano.

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

And Lennie Tristano I like a lot, I still like him.

I remember the first check I got from The Who's recording [of "Young Man Blues"]. I'd been getting checks for $10 and $15 and so forth, and this one was for a much larger amount than that. I thought it was a mistake.