Young people should travel, and they don’t. You can’t know if you don’t go.

To me it's no accident that all the symphony orchestras around the world tune up to the note A. And A is 440 cycles, except in Germany where it's 444. But the universe is 450 cycles. So what I'm trying to say is, I think it's God's voice, melody especially. Counterpoint, retrograde inversion, harmony... that's the science and the craft.

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 tell my kids and I tell proteges, always have humility when you create and grace when you succeed, because its not about you. You are a terminal for a higher power. As soon as you accept that, you can do it forever.

I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

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

I'd been in love before - I was always in love.