If you don't get substantially what you want, be ready to walk. And don't look back.

The public, hearing pop music, is, without knowing it, also soaking up jazz.

I don't say that the supposed Civil Rights development is a myth, but it's a matter of dealing with reality. It's purely peripheral and, in many cases, it's just a facade.

The history of all big jazz bands shows was, first they played for dancing, and then they played for singing.

Jazz is America's own. It is played and listened to by all peoples - in harmony together. Pigmentation differences have no place... as in genuine democracy, only performance counts.

As long as we're in a democracy, I have to give what I think the majority of people will enjoy.

I don't think that jazz, as any kind of an art form, has any permanence attached to it, apart from the practitioners of it.