Every day you must be able to say, I have to get up because I'm needed by someone. As long as you have that, you're healthy.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do.

I never felt like I had a mother.

Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.

The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the entertainment business was atrocious. It was atrocious.

I'm a great believer in letting lyrics just flow out, wherever they come from.