I don't deserve a Songwriters Hall of Fame Award. But fifteen years ago, I had a brain operation and I didn't deserve that, either. So I'll keep it.

My son is a hip-hop producer.

You can study orchestration, you can study harmony and theory and everything else, but melodies come straight from God.

I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain't that the truth."

A person's age can be determined by the degree of pain he experiences when he comes in contact with a new idea.

The people who make it to the top - whether they're musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos - are addicted to their calling ... [they] are the ones who'd be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren't being paid.

Billy Strayhorn wrote Multicolored Blue. Billy to me is the boss of the arrangers.